D’Evelyn football airs it out in win over Denver West
DENVER — Now it’s a waiting game for D’Evelyn football after a 49-8 victory over Denver West to wrap up the regular season.
“If we get in we’ll be No. 16,” D’Evelyn coach Jeremy Bennett said after the Jaguars’ win Saturday night at All-City Stadium. “I wouldn’t want to be No. 1 because we are going to give them everything we have. We’ll wait and see where the numbers fall out.”
When D’Evelyn (5-4, 4-1 in 2A Flatirons League) took the field the Jaguars sat in the No. 16 spot in the Class 2A football RPI rankings. D’Evelyn has to wait until the final 2A games across the state are calculated to see if the Jaguars were able to hang on to the final spot for the 16-team 2A state tournament that will be seeded Sunday, Oct. 29.
The state bracket will be posted on CHSAANow.com on Sunday.
“We played our game,” Bennett said. “We talked all week about coming out and playing D’Evelyn passing football. I’m happy with the way this game went.”
The Jaguars put on a passing clinic in the first half. D’Evelyn senior quarterback Chad Dines was 8-for-9 passing for 248 yards and six touchdowns before halftime to give the Jaguars a 42-0 lead. In fact, Dines at one point had four straight pass attempts go for touchdowns.
“Not quite like that ever,” Dines said of his first-half passing numbers. “We had a great week of practice and we knew we had to build our confidence going into playoffs. We think we are in the playoffs. We did all we could tonight.”
Senior receiver Cody Bell caught five passes for 213 yards and four touchdowns in the first half. Bell finished the regular season with nearly 1,000 yards receiving and 12 touchdown catches.
“If we don’t get in to the playoffs it was a good way to end with my brothers on the field, from freshmen to seniors,” Bell said. “Hopefully we’ll get in as No. 16 in the RPI.”
What might help the Jaguars’ RPI is their strength of schedule in non-league play. The Jaguars suffered three losses before getting into conference play, but all were against top-10 teams in 2A — No. 6 Sterling, No. 5 The Classical Academy and No. 3 Platte Valley.
The Jaguars’ lone conference loss came to No. 7 Faith Christian (8-1, 5-0). With the Eagles defeating D’Evelyn head-to-head and winning the conference, Faith grabbed the automatic bid for the state tournament.
“This year going 1-3 really humbled us,” said Bell talking about the Jaguars’ non-league record. The previous season D’Evelyn was 3-1 before going into its league schedule. “We thought going in we would be a powerhouse team. It showed us we aren’t the best team right now, but we can be.”
All four of the teams that defeated D’Evelyn during the regular season are locked into playoff spots.
What might hurt the Jaguars’ RPI is Denver West finished the season 1-8, so that will impact D’Evelyn’s ‘opponents’ winning percentage’ number and could very well drop the Jaguars out of the top 16. The 2A Flatirons League had just two teams — Faith Christian and D’Evelyn — finish with winning records.
Bennett, who guided the Jaguars to their 12th winning season in his 13 years at D’Evelyn, admitted he wouldn’t get any sleep until he sees D’Evelyn in the No. 16 spot. The Jaguars could get another shot against Platte Valley if the undefeated Broncos get the top seed. Platte Valley defeated D’Evelyn 35-6 on Sept. 22.
“(Platte Valley) is a great team and they got the best of us for sure. We made a lot of mistakes that game. I had some turnovers,” Dines said about the possibility of playing the Broncos in the opening round. “Anything can happen. We’re ready.”
A bright spot for Denver West on Saturday was senior running back Malcolm White went over the 1,000-yard mark on the season and prevented the shutout loss with a 7-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
“I think (White) is the primer running back in this league. Malcolm is a great football player,” Bennett said. “He had the long run and the fake punt, but for the most part our starting defense held him in check.”
