No. 4 Pine Creek football grinds out road win against Ralston Valley
ARVADA — Pine Creek’s football team made it a productive trip to the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada on Friday night.
The Eagles, No. 4 in this week’s CHSAANow.com Class 4A rankings, spoiled Ralston Valley’s homecoming game. Pine Creek came away with a 22-10 win in the final non-league game for both teams.
“We’ve had a tough grind in our non-conference,” Pine Creek coach Todd Miller said. “Coming in here and playing a great quality (Ralston Valley) program that is well-coached. Our players executed the game-plan and played hard.”
The plan for Pine Creek (3-2 overall) was to bottle up Ralston Valley’s rushing attack. The Eagles did just that in the opening half holding the Mustangs (2-3) to under 50 yards total offense in taking a 14-0 lead at halftime.
“Pine Creek’s defense just kind of dominated our offensive line and we made too many mistakes,” Ralston Valley senior Shayne Whitmyer said. “We’ve got to improve.”
Pine Creek capped off an opening 7-play, 66-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown by junior Wyatt Weiland. Senior quarterback Brock Domann ran in a 2-point conversion to give the Eagles an 8-0 lead.
Ralston Valley’s defensive highlight in the opening half was Whitmyer recovering a fumble by senior Pete Isais on the Mustangs’ 44-yard line with 9:28 left in the second quarter. However, the Mustangs weren’t able to take advantage of the good field position. After a first down, Ralston Valley had to punt.
While a punt by Ralston Valley senior Salvetti D’Ascoli pinned Pine Creek back on its own 6-yard line, Domann quickly got the Eagles out of the hole. Back-to-back runs of 14 and 38 yards by Domann got Pine Creek across midfield. The Eagles then went to the air for their second touchdown.
“We saw the mismatch and we went to it,” Isais said of the biggest play of the game.
On a fourth-down play from Ralston Valley’s 27-yard line in the waning minutes of the first half, Domann connected with Isais for a 27-yard touchdown pass. Pine Creek took a 14-0 lead at halftime.
“Pete was calling for it. Sometimes as coaches you’ve got to listen to the guys that are involved in the mission,” Miller said. “(Isais) wanted it and Brock put it right on the money.”
Ralston Valley got on the board in the second half with a 36-yard field goal by senior Ben Raybon late in the third quarter to make the score 14-3. It capped off a long 15-play drive that covered 75 yards before stalling out on Pine Creek’s 20-yard line.
The Eagles did respond. Domann, who finished with 103 yards rushing and 58 yards passing, ran for a 12-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter to push Pine Creek’s lead to 22-3.
Ralston Valley managed a touchdown late on a 21-yard touchdown run by D’Ascoli to make the final score 22-10. The Mustangs finished with just over 200 yards of offense in the second half. Whitmyer, Tyler Callaway, Tyler Shannon and Brad Roberts combined for 170 yards rushing.
“We’ve got to look forward. We’ve got to look past this,” Whitmyer said. “We’ve got to get back to work at practice and take it to our league.”
The Mustangs opens play in the 5A Mtn. Wilson League against Castle View (2-3) at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 6 at Douglas County Stadium.
Pine Creek begins play in the 4A Southern League at home against Pueblo Centennial at 1 p.m. Oct. 8.
“It was huge to get this win going into league,” Isais said. “This is just a stepping stone. It’s on to next week.”
