WELLINGTON – It wasn’t all that long ago, just four short years ago in fact, that the football field at Wellington High School was better at producing sugar beets than it was touchdowns.
In a town steeped in football tradition – notably the legendary Byron “Whizzer” White in the 1930’s – it has been over 70 years since the Eagles competed for a state championship. And for the first time since winning back-to-back 6-man state titles in 1952 and 1953, the northernmost town on I-25 before you cross into Wyoming is back on the football map.
The ninth-seeded Eagles rolled into the Class 2A state championship game with a resounding 45-14 victory over North League rival Eaton on Friday night and will play the winner of tomorrow’s Classical Academy and Basalt game next Saturday night at 5 p.m. at historic Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo.
“These are good kids and its a good town,” said Wellington coach Travis Peeples, who has made a habit of resurrecting programs around the state. “The kids have put everything into what we have told them, they believed in us. They worked their butts off.
“We knew they had the heart, we knew they had the talent, but tonight it was a devastating blow to our opponent. They are a great team, but we went up against Title Town, USA and we mauled them into the ground. We physically beat them up and that’s the kind of ball we play.”
Wellington, which had already handed the 13th-seeded Reds a 35-10 loss earlier this season without their starting quarterback Tanner Gray (6-foot-4 245 pounds) in the lineup, had its full complement of weapons on Friday night. And behind an offensive line that dominated the line of scrimmage all night long, the four-headed monster of Gray, senior Cash Altschwager, Cyle Kisner and Tre Trujillo rushed for over 300 yards.
“Up front, we smoked them,” Peeples said. “They came off the ball, and (Eaton) had a lot of fight in them, but our kids had more fight in them and we took care of business.”
On a night dominated by the Wellington offense, it was a special teams play that not only set the tone, but gave the momentum back to the Eagles for good. After Eaton quarterback Andrew Loyd’s pass was hauled in by Max Baskowski for a 29-yard score with 2:59 to play in the second quarter, the Reds trailed 14-7 and had that aforementioned momentum.
It lasted all of 12 seconds.
Wellington freshman Brayton Meglen – a middle school sprint champion last year – took the ensuing kickoff back 85 yards and the field titled right back to the Eagles.
“We’ve been waiting for a special team play. We’ve put a lot of time into special teams and we said we needed to score on special teams,” Peeples said. “It finally came in Week 13. He’s been sitting on special teams, and he got his chance and made the most of it.”
Said Meglen: “It was massive. This whole week I was thinking I was going to get one, I was going to get a kick return. We knew it was coming.”
A quick three-and-out for the defense gave the ball back to the Wellington one more time before the half and Gray made the Reds pay with a 1-yard touchdown run that made it a three score game going to the break.
Eaton would get a Loyd touchdown on its opening drive of the second half to cut the lead to 28-14, but it would be as close as the Reds would get. Loyd would throw three second half interceptions, including one to Huston Willhite that went all the way back for a pick six to cap the scoring in the fourth quarter.
“This is crazy, just the third year of the program and we are going to the ‘ship,” Meglen said. “This whole town is crazy for Wellington football right now and everywhere you go, you see Wellington Eagles football… it’s amazing.”
(Iyla Yunt)
