No. 5 Green Mountain football gets bounce-back win over Standley Lake
LAKEWOOD — It took a less than 30 seconds to turn a one-score game into a 17-point lead for the Green Mountain football team Friday night at Trailblazer Stadium.
A late first-half field goal by junior Nathan Hunsinger and a 40-yard touchdown run by Green Mountain senior quarterback Trey Towndrown on the opening play from scrimmage in the third quarter gave the Rams all push they needed.
“We always try to focus on getting points at the end of the half and then getting the ball back. Bill Belichick calls it the magic eight minutes,” Green Mountain coach Jesse German said after the Rams’ 36-13 victory over Standley Lake. “That was huge momentum deal for us.”
An interception in the final minute of the first half by junior Allen Ortiz set up the big 33-yard field goal by Hunsinger in the final seconds before halftime to put Green Mountain — ranked No. 5 in the Class 3A CHSAANow.com football poll — ahead 10-0 going into the locker room.
“I was just reading my keys,” Ortiz said of the interception with less than a minute to play in the first half. “I saw the receiver go out. It was an easy pick. We had run that a thousand times in practice. It was awesome.”
A nice kickoff return by senior Trey Corkin put the Rams into Standley Lake territory to start the second half. Towndrow ran in the first of three second-half touchdown runs to put Green Mountain ahead 17-0… 20 seconds into the third quarter.
“We were slow, but we knew we would blowup soon,” Towndrow said of the majority of the first half. “Third quarter we came out with the right mindset of pulling this game away.”
Towndrow had touchdown runs of 40, 3 and 19 yards after halftime. He also had a 44-yard scoring pass to junior Austin Peterson for the lone touchdown in the first half.
“He (Towndrow) can score from anywhere,” German said of his talented quarterback. “The linemen did a good job getting hats-on-hats for him. He is that game-changer. We are blessed to have them.”
Senior Jacob Chavez also had a 19-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter to help the Rams amass a 36-0 lead early in the fourth quarter.
German pointed out the key goal-line stand his defense had in the first half. Standley Lake had a long 12-play drive and had third-down and goal at about the 1-foot line. However, a penalty and then a failed field goal attempt that turned into a pass attempt on fourth down kept the Gators off the scoreboard.
Standley Lake (1-3 record) did prevent the shutout with a defensive touchdown on a pick-6 by junior Pete Biller midway through the fourth quarter. The Gators also added a late touchdown run, but Green Mountain (3-1) came away with the win over the Class 4A squad from Westminster.
“We definitely came into this game with a different mindset from last week,” Ortiz said referring to the 19-15 road loss to No. 8 Lutheran last week. “We had that bitter taste in our mouths. We want to come out and show where we are at. We had one of our best weeks of practice.”
Green Mountain is back on the road next week to face Falcon. Standley Lake hosts Denver South next Friday at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada.
