Football roundup: No. 5 Palisade knocks off No. 3 Holy Family in 3A

Palisade had a key fourth-down stop near the goal-line in the fourth quarter as the fifth-ranked Bulldogs upset No. 3 Holy Family 42-34 in a huge Class 3A football game on Friday evening.

PD Riddle ran for two touchdowns and threw for another, while Prescott Price and Isaac Maestas each had two touchdowns.

“It was like an arena football game,” Palisade coach Joe Ramunno told Colorado Preps’ Scoreboard Show on Friday. “We had to take away possessions, and we were able to do that.”

The game tilted back-and-forth throughout, though Palisade never trailed. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter, and that proved to be the difference.

“That’s what we knew we had to do, because they are so potent offensively,” Ramunno said. “They came back, though. They brought it back to 28-21 at the half. … We just knew we had to keep a possession ahead as much as we could, but they made a run for it there at the end.”

Holy Family quarterback Chris Helbig, who set the state passing record two weeks ago, continued his torrid early-season pace. He threw for three more touchdowns on Friday night, giving him 16 over three consecutive games. That breaks the previous record of 15 set by Grand Junction’s Doug Musgrave in 1988.

Trailing 35-28 late in the fourth quarter, Holy Family marched down to the Palisade 5-yard-line, but the Bulldogs turned away the high-powered offense. Palisade scored on Maestas’ 87-yard touchdown on its next drive.

“They had a great drive going on, and our defense really stepped up to get a great finish on it,” Ramunno said. “We were able to stop that fourth-down conversion, and then just a just a few plays later, Isaac was able to get into the end zone.

“It was a big turnaround for us. They were going in to tie it up, and we ended up getting it back to (a 14-point lead).”

Holy Family again cut into the lead to make it 45-34 with 55 seconds to play, but couldn’t recover an onside kick and Palisade was able to hang on.

Maestas rushed for more than 200 yards for Palisade.

5A: Mullen 38, (2) Pomona 31 (OT)

Mullen rallied from down 24-13 in the third quarter to eventually take a 28-24 lead over the second-ranked Panthers with seven minutes remaining.

Pomona went up 31-28 with a minute remaining, and then Mullen hit a field goal to send it to overtime.

Once there, the Mustangs pulled off the biggest upset of the young season.

5A: Arapahoe 17, (5) Grandview 14

#93 RaPue hits field goal to take the lead 17-14. 1:20 to play! @neildevlin @CHSAA @ahswarriors pic.twitter.com/eC2QAIKfkb

— Arapahoe Athletics (@ArapSports) September 19, 2015

Arapahoe pulled off the upset thanks to the above field goal with a little over a minute to play.

The Warriors led 7-0 at the half after Mitch Pennetta’s fumble recovery for a score. Grandview tied it up, but then Pete Mitchell hit Connor Williams for a 69-yard passing touchdown to give Arapahoe another lead.

Arapahoe is now 3-0, including two wins over ranked teams.

6-man: (1) Fleming 66, (3) Pawnee 22

Fleming was up 24-6 at the half, then exploded in the second half to take the important 6-man matchup.

“We came out aggressively,” Wildcats coach John King told the Scoreboard Show. “We just executed really well. We kind of went right at them and actually probably ran the ball more tonight than we have been lately.”

5A: (7) Regis Jesuit 19, (9) Cherokee Trail 14

The Raiders jumped out to a 13-0 lead at halftime, and held on for the important top-10 win.

Cherokee Trail cut it to 13-7 in the third quarter, but Regis Jesuit pushed it back to 19-7 midway through the fourth quarter.

The Cougars did score again in the final minutes, but Regis Jesuit got a game-ending interception.

5A: Horizon 18, (8) Fairview 14

Horizon rallied from a 14-0 hole to score the game’s final 18 points and pull the upset.

The Hawks cut into that lead to make it 14-12 at half, then took the lead on Jared Jiron’s 1-yard touchdown with 2:15 to go in the third quarter.

Horizon made a goal-line stand in the fourth quarter, and then recovered a muffed punt with two minutes left to hold on and win.

The Knights had won 20 consecutive games in the regular season prior to Friday’s loss.

4A/3A: (9) Palmer Ridge 48, (9) Lewis Palmer 14

Isaiah Sanders threw for 440 yards and four touchdowns as Palmer Ridge won General Palmer’s Cup over its rival.

Palmer Ridge (3-0) stretched its lead to 28-0 before Lewis-Palmer finally got on the board, and then cruised from there.

Notables

A total of five top-10 teams in Class 5A have lost (so far) this week, including four to unranked opponents.
Mountain View beat rival Loveland for the first time ever, 38-28. It was the team’s ninth meeting.
No. 4 Windsor easily handled Fort Collins in a good 4A matchup, 30-6.
1A No. 8 Rye shutout 2A No. 10 Trinidad 45-0.
Pueblo South upset No. 8 Wheat Ridge in 4A, 42-35.
Another upset, this one in 2A: Pueblo County over No. 8 Florence 14-0.
No. 2 Eads handled No. 9 Cheyenne Wells in 6-man, 60-12.
In coach Todd Casebier’s return to Montrose, his former team beat Fruita Monument 31-7.
5A No. 4 Valor Christian went to Utah and beat East 26-10.
Nate Renfrew had the game-winning extra point in overtime as Air Academy beat Widefield 40-39 in 4A.
West Grand football coach Chris Brown won his 300th career game last week. Friday, he got No. 301 in a 46-32 win over Gilpin County.
Pueblo West beat Falcon 34-26 in 4A.
Wiggins took down 1A No. 10 Crowley County, 27-20.