Bear Creek captures first playoff win since 2014

LAKEWOOD — Bear Creek’s football program got the taste of a playoff victory for the first time in seven years Saturday afternoon at Jeffco Stadium.

The No. 14-seeded Bears defeated No. 19 Windsor 24-7 to grab Bear Creek’s first postseason victory on the gridiron since 2014. 

“It feels awesome. You can see it with these guys. They are so excited,” Bear Creek coach Matt Steinfeldt after receiving an ice bucket shower from players as the final buzzer sounded. “They know what our history has been. They know the cornerstone they’ve put in place for our program.”

The Bears (8-3 record) now heads to Colorado Springs next week to face No. 3 Pine Creek (8-2) in the round of 16. The Eagles had a first-round bye after taking a top-8 seed in the Class 4A state tournament 24-team field.

“Nobody is going to expect us to win,” Bear Creek senior Ryan Segovia said of facing powerhouse Pine Creek. “I think we are going to go down there and play our best ball. If our best ball is good enough for a win or we lose we’ll be happy.”

Segovia and fellow senior Caleb Sauseda were instrumental powering the Bears’ rushing attack that allowed Bear Creek to generate long scoring drives of 15, 12 and 12 plays to open up a 17-7 lead late in the third quarter.

Windsor (4-7) had a nice opening drive to start the second half going, but Bear Creek came up with a huge stop on a 4-and-6 play from the Bears’ 36-yard line. Wizards’ running back Jaden Thomas was stopped short of the first down to give the Bears the ball.

It looked like Bear Creek would have to punt the ball away, but senior quarterback Jaedon Minter had a huge 9-yard run on a third-and-long play to keep the drive alive.

“If I don’t see anyone open I just have to do my best and be a playmaker,” Minter said of his running ability that burned the Wizards on several occasions. “If I see the first-down marker I just got to get it.”

Minter finished the 12-play scoring drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to junior Aaron Nash to open up a 17-7 lead.

“We have been trying to convince Jaedon that his is the runner that we know he is,” Steinfeldt said. “That was the difference with him extending some of those third-down situations. It has developed his confidence as a runner.”

Minter’s feet set up the final score of the game. The senior had runs of 9 and 28 yards on back-to-back plays to get the Bears inside the 10-yard line. Sauseda finished the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run.

Bear Creek’s defense came up big in the final minutes to force Windsor to turn the ball over on downs with less than two minutes to play. It was actually the second meeting of the season between the Wizards and Bears. Bear Creek took a 24-14 victory at Windsor on Sept. 24.

“We knew playing them early in the season they are a hell of a driving team,” said Segovia, who plays defense line and running back. “We knew they would pound the rock and we were ready for it. We knew how to buck up and when it counted we stopped them.”

Bear Creek got just what it wanted on its opening drive. The Bears went 80 yards in 15 plays. Segovia capped off the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to give the Bears a 7-0 lead with 7:05 left in the first quarter.

Windsor would answer taking advantage of a botched punt attempt by Bear Creek. The Wizards took over on the Bears’ 30-yard line and scored on the first play of the second quarter with a 24-yard touchdown pass from senior Adam Lieber to junior David Hageman to tie the game at 7-7.

Bear Creek regained the lead late in the second quarter with a 31-yard field goal by senior AJ Garcia to put the Bear up 10-7 at halftime.

“Coaches told us we are a second-half team and we had to step up,” Minter said of the locker room talk at halftime. 

No matter what happens in Colorado Springs in the round of 16, Bear Creek’s 2021 season is one for the history books.

“We have been working so hard. We believe in ourselves when nobody else did,” Segovia said. “We got it done. I want to thank our coaches and new staff. The senior Class of 2022 really brought it together.”