The 24-team Class 5A and 4A football playoff fields are set, with first-round games beginning Friday night. Here’s what to watch for in Colorado’s biggest classifications leading up to the state championship game on Dec. 6 at Canvas Stadium.
Class 5A
The Favorite
Cherry Creek: No surprise here. The Bruins have won five of the last six 5A titles, and this year’s team hasn’t trailed in a fourth quarter yet. Both sides of the ball are loaded with FBS talent. Senior running back Jayden Fox (1,231 yards, 17 TDs rushing) is a TD waiting to happen. And a Creek defense led by Oregon LB commit Braylon Hodge and Washington DL commit Tufanua Ionatana Umu-Cais has almost twice as many takeaways (23) as touchdowns allowed (12). Good gravy.
The Challengers
Ralston Valley: The No. 2 Mustangs just went 10-0 for the first time in six years, and they did it with all-everything senior quarterback Zeke Andrews unavailable the last two weeks. Eight of their 10 wins came against 5A playoff teams, including double-digit victories over Valor Christian, Arvada West and Mullen. R.V. has never reached the 5A title game. This might be the Mustangs’ best chance yet.
Mountain Vista: Last season ended in heartbreak with a quarterfinal loss to Fairview played at two stadiums over the course of roughly six hours. Unbeaten at 10-0 for a second straight year, this year’s third-seeded Golden Eagles are nearly as explosive as last year’s top-ranked team. Can they get past the quarterfinal hurdle that’s toppled the program two years in a row?
Legend: Jake Heaps’ fourth-seeded Titans have just one blemish on their resume — an overtime Week 3 loss at Arvada West. They have the quarterback (Boston College commit DJ Bordeaux), the all-everything weapon (Ryken Banks), the offensive line anchor (Gage Turnbull) and the experience as last year’s 5A runners-up. A showdown with Valor in the quarterfinals looks juicy.
Valor Christian: If there’s one team in Colorado that can match Cherry Creek in the trenches, it’s these guys. The offensive line is loaded with FBS recruits, there are weapons all over the field, and the guy slinging the rock (sophomore Titus Huard) has been shooting laser beams out of his eyes since assuming control of the starting QB spot with 814 yards and 9 TDs on 79.7% passing.
The Dark Horses
Columbine: Ralson Valley coach Jared Yannacito must’ve shaken his head when the 5A bracket dropped Sunday. Go undefeated, earn the No. 2 seed, and your Round of 16 opponent could be Columbine?!?!? Andy Lowry’s 15th-seeded Rebels actually led R.V. at halftime when they met in Week 8 and have looked like a different team since their 0-3 start. Caveman football always plays in November.
Mullen: Any team that has a tight end like senior Michigan commit Mason Bonner (33 catches, 574 yards) and a bulldozer running back like senior Dante Dupuch (1,243 yards, 14 TDs rushing) must be taken seriously. Throw in a salty defense headlined by three-star junior LB Troy Mailo (14 tackles for loss), and the 10th-seeded Mustangs figure to be a tough out.
Three Questions
Just how chalky will this bracket be?
A year ago, seven of the top eight seeds advanced to the quarterfinals, and the eighth team was No. 9 Erie. A year before that, three double-digit seeds made the quarterfinals and one advanced to the semifinals. So, what kind of a bracket will we get this fall? Mullen and Columbine are both dangerous (see above). Catch Grandview on the wrong night, and the Wolves are a handful, too. That said, the top eight seeds have eight combined losses. It just might be a top-heavy year.
Can a team outside the Denver Metro make the title game?
It’s been 12 years since a program outside the Denver area reached the big school title game, and 33 years since one won it (Boulder, 1992). With only one non-metro program reaching the semifinals since 2012 (Pine Creek, 2022), the odds are long that trend changes over the next five weeks. Still, No. 7 Pine Creek and No. 8 Fairview have first-round byes, and the latter was a failed two-point conversion against Arvada West away from an unbeaten regular season. The Knights also have touchdown machine Toray Davis (35 TDs) lining up all over creation. Overlook them at your own peril.
Be honest: Can anyone really beat Cherry Creek?
With more than a dozen FBS recruits suiting up for the defending 5A champions, the Bruins are a wagon. Nobody will be bigger. Nobody will be more athletic. And nobody will be deeper than Dave Logan’s team. Still … we’re talking about teenagers here. There are no guarantees — even with a team as loaded as Cherry Creek. Legend had the Bruins on the ropes before ultimately falling 13-10 last December inside Canvas Stadium. Columbine beat the Bruins by two touchdowns the season before that in FoCo. Who’s to say that can’t happen again?
Class 4A
The Favorite
Dakota Ridge: At the start of the season, Eagles lineman Jace Winchester declared, “If we play our brand of football, no one in the state can stop us.” It’s hard to argue with the results. Dakota Ridge enters the postseason unbeaten, with nine wins coming against teams that will play in either the 5A, 4A or 3A state playoffs, and the 10th against a Florida team that finished 7-3. The one question mark hovering over the top seed: What happens when a team makes the Eagles sweat in the fourth quarter?
The Challengers
Montrose: The No. 2 Red Hawks have been knocking on the door of a 4A title for quite a while under coach Brett Mertens. They’ve reached the 4A semifinals three times in four years, and advanced to the championship round last December. They just completed their third unbeaten regular season since 2021 by doing what they always do: Grind opposing defenses into dust with a blunt-force run game that’s as reliable as a metronome.
Palmer Ridge: Speaking of programs looking to break through, the Bears have reached the 4A quarterfinals or better every year since rising to 4A in 2020. Now they’re looking to take that last step. Much like Montrose and Dakota Ridge, the third-seeded Bears were hardly challenged during a 10-0 regular season. The main reason for that: A defense that’s allowed 70 points total this fall.
Durango: The Demons were dealt a humbling 35-14 loss by No. 2 Montrose in Week 1, but have been lights out on defense ever since with 66 points allowed over their final nine games. Dual-threat quarterback Grady Feeney is the engine powering the Durango offense. If the Demons can advance to the quarterfinals, they may get a shot at avenging last year’s second-round loss to Heritage on the Western Slope.
Heritage: One could easily put defending 4A champion Broomfield in this spot. Instead, we’ll go with the team that went 6-1 against 4A playoff entrants, has a battering ram for a running back in senior Mo Thennel (1,869 total yards, 21 TDs) and deploys a monstrous tight end in 6-foot-6, 250-pound UCLA commit Camden Jensen. A blowout loss to Dakota Ridge gives pause, but the Eagles also turned the ball over four times in that game.
The Dark Horses
Northfield: The Nighthawks have come a long way from a 35-0 loss to 3A Roosevelt in Week 1. They were a failed two-point conversion away from knocking off fifth-seeded Heritage in Week 3, and they’ve ripped off seven straight wins since. They went 5-0 against DPS competition, posted three shutouts and scored 50-plus points in three of their final four games to nab the No. 9 seed.
Grand Junction: This is, admittedly, a sentimental pick. There were few league races as entertaining as the 4A I-25 League — a group that featured three of the top 16 teams in the CHSAA seeding index, but saw just one move on due to an agreement that stipulated only the league champion could advance to the playoffs. The 12th-seeded Tigers closed out the regular season on a five-game win streak, averaging 47.4 points per game. More fireworks, please.
Three Questions
Are the Monarch Coyotes for real?
It’s been 13 years since Monarch posted double-digit wins. Now, the seventh-seeded Coyotes are two wins away from doing just that and waking up the echoes of a Louisville program that reached the 4A title game three times between 2002 and 2012. The backfield combination of junior quarterback Nico Rizzello and junior running back Malakhi Payne went toe-to-toe with 5A power Fairview in Week 4. That’s as much evidence as any that this team means business.
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That record next to 10th-seeded Riverdale Ridge is no typo. The Ravens did, indeed, go 10-0. And one of those wins came against defending 4A champion Broomfield in Week 9. Yes, the very same Eagles who are seeded four spots ahead of the Ravens at No. 6. How could this be? Well, the rest of Riverdale Ridge’s schedule left a lot to be desired. The Ravens played just one winning team (Broomfield), and the cumulative record of their 10 opponents was 25-74. Still, soft schedule or not, a defense that allows just 7.1 points per game always travels.
Just how wide open is this bracket?
Is there a prohibitive favorite to win it all? Not really. But Dakota Ridge, Montrose and Palmer Ridge appear to be in a tier above everyone else. The interesting part about that is that not one of those programs has ever won a state title at the 4A level. Dakota Ridge hasn’t made the championship round since 2004. Montrose’s title game trip last season was its first since 2013. And Palmer Ridge has twice lost in the championship round. So, there’s a very good chance the team that hoists the trophy inside Canvas Stadium on Dec. 6 is one that is breaking new ground.
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