Mountain Vista football advances with win over Cherokee Trail

HIGHLANDS RANCH — It was Halloween night, so it seemed only fitting the game started with a bit of trickery.

The Mountain Vista Golden Eagles, a No. 3-seed in this year’s Class 5A football playoffs, scored on a flea flicker on the first play of the game and never trailed Friday night, beating the No. 6-seeded Cherokee Trail Cougars 24-17 to advance to the second round of the playoffs.

The 80-yard completion from wide receiver Brendan Ike to fellow wide receiver Christian Benavides was almost as big of a surprise to the Golden Eagles as it was the Cougars, according to quarterback Brock Rubley.

“It was a bit of a surprise. We didn’t know we were going to do it until like two minutes before the first play happened,” said Rubley, a senior. “But it worked. We ran it maybe once in practice, but it worked.”

“I wouldn’t say we’ve been thinking about it all week,” said Golden Eagles head coach Ric Cash. “We’ve had that play in our arsenal for a while now, haven’t used it. So we decided to go ahead and take a shot on the first play, and it came up big.”

Mountain Vista would add a field goal from kicker Mitchel Anderson, and in the second quarter, another touchdown pass, this one from Rubley to sophomore wide receiver Tristen Dean. Backed by a run-stuffing defense, the Golden Eagles carried a 17-0 lead into halftime.

Ross said his squad came into the night focused on stopping the Cougars ground game, specifically senior running back Izaiah Lottie.

“Everybody we talked to said you’ve got to shut down number 25,” said Cash. “That was a big part of the game-plan, because they were really dependent on the running game, specifically his speed.

“Our kids did a great job bottling him up and then forcing them to some different things they weren’t as comfortable doing.”

And because Mountain Vista’s front seven was stopping the run, it allowed their defensive backs to make plays on the ball whenever Cougars quarterback Blake Butler attempted to throw downfield.

“We watched a lot of film this week, keying on number 25,” said Vista cornerback Will Flynn, who tipped multiple long passes away from Cougar receivers. “Huge shout-out to our guys up front. We owe it all to them.

“We did what we always do. We come in, we shut people down. That’s what we’re going to keep doing.”

Mountain Vista’s defense was playing well, but Cherokee Trail adjusted at halftime and came out in the third quarter with a new offensive focus. Running back Quincey Voss broke off a 44-yard run down the sideline, and a few plays later, plunged into the end zone to get the Cougars on the board.

Still down two scores, Cherokee Trail would turn to Butler, who had a long scramble and completed passes on a fourth down and later a third and long to keep a Cougars drive alive. After Voss plunged in from 5 yards out for his second touchdown of the night, Vista’s lead shrunk to three.

But late in the fourth, Mountain Vista’s defense would come up big again. A sack by junior noseguard Matt Yockey pushed the Cougars back to third and 25 with just over two minutes remaining. Two incompletions and a turnover on downs later, the Golden Eagles got the ball back on offense and would add a touchdown to effectively ice the win.

“We felt like that was a great team, obviously coming out of a very tough league,” said Cash of Cherokee Trail. “For us we felt like, ‘gosh, that’s a tough first round game’. So for our kids, without a lot of playoff experience to come out and play the way they did, I thought they did a great job.”

The Golden Eagles will face an even tougher test in the second round, when they take on No. 2-seed Valor Christian, a five-time defending champion.

“We’re extremely excited,” said Rubley. “We’re going to keep watching film, work hard in practice, and hopefully we get the W next week.”