No. 2 Dakota Ridge soars past Rampart

LAKEWOOD — Dakota Ridge football continues to light up the scoreboard.

The Eagles — No. 2 in the latest CHSAANow.com Class 4A standings — put up 40-plus points for the third straight game Friday at Jeffco Stadium. Dakota Ridge defeated Rampart 42-2 to remain undefeated on the season.

“It got a little tiring with people talking abut all the seniors that were graduating,” Dakota Ridge junior running back Noah Triplett said. “We still have some dogs. At this point we are really reloading rather than rebuilding.”

Triplett had a trio of touchdown runs — 1, 16 and 19 yards — to push his total to 13 on the season in four games.

Dakota Ridge’s defense forced an early turnover to give the Eagles (4-0 record) ideal field position on Rampart’s 21-yard line for Dakota Ridge’s opening offensive drive. Senior Isac Pingarron picked up a loose ball to give the Eagles the ball near the red zone.

“It was a great defensive effort,” Pingarron said. 

Triplett spun his way into the end zone from 1-yard out to give the Eagles an early 7-0 lead. 

The second scoring drive for Dakota Ridge was similar. After a 3-and-out for Rampart, the Eagles got great field position again on the Rams’ 18-yard line after a good punt return by senior Connor Fitzhugh. Senior quarterback Adam Graves tossed his first of three touchdown passes with a 6-yard scoring strike to junior Bobby Levin with 7:39 left in the second quarter.

Triplett ran for his second touchdown of the game on the Eagles’ third offensive drive. The junior scored from 16 yards out to put Dakota Ridge up 21-0 with 3:31 left in the first quarter. The Eagles kept it going in the second quarter with Graves hitting Fitzhugh for a remarkable 51-yard touchdown.

“It was amazing how I did that,” Fitzhugh said of the leaping grab and then keeping his feet. “I said the ball and high pointed it. I was still up so I ran in.”

Fitzhugh out-jumped Rampart junior Rand Butler and somehow the Dakota Ridge receiver didn’t go down and jogged into the end zone to give the Eagles a 28-0 lead.

“We kind of call him the silent warrior,” Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz said of Fitzhugh. “He just keeps making plays. He isn’t a big talker, but he has had a great year so far. He does everything for us.”

Graves threw his third touchdown with a 13-yard shovel pass to senior Jacob Lafave on the Eagles’ opening drive of the second half. It was a good bounce-back for Graves after he threw two interceptions in the final minute of the second quarter.

“I was a little disappointed. I thought we lot a little focus at the end of the first half,” Woitalewicz said. “Maybe things seemed a little easy early and they got complacent.”

The only points Rampart (1-3) produced was when senior Quintin Klich sacked Graves in the end zone for a 2-point safety with 4:16 left in the third quarter.

“Defensively I thought we played really good,” Woitalewicz said. “We do have to do a better job taking care of the ball on offense. We’ll get that stuff cleaned up.”

Dakota Ridge did finish strong with Triplett having three straight carries on a 3 play, 52 yard scoring drive. The bruising running back had carries of 22, 11 and 19 yards to induce a running clock with 11:02 left in the fourth quarter with a 42-2 lead.

“We came into that drive with the mentality that we were going to punch them in the mouth,” Triplett said of the Eagles’ final scoring drive. “We wanted to finish it right now. I liked the way we finished.”

It was the third straight game that the Eagles have got to a running clock against their opponent. 

“You have seen our league this year. That isn’t going to happen,” Woitalewicz said about running clocks during play in the improved conference this season. “Bear Creek is better. Golden and Chatfield are 3-0. It’s not like last year when we could just turn it on and go. I’m not sure if we’ll see a running clock the rest of the year.”

Dakota Ridge finishes out non-league play on the road next week against Brighton.