Defense leads the way for No. 5 Columbine in win over Cherokee Trail

LAKEWOOD — Columbine defense wasn’t going to give an inch away Thursday at Jeffco Stadium.

Any time Cherokee Trail seemed to get a little of offensive momentum the Rebels’ defense put an end to that in a hurry. Columbine — No. 5 in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A football rankings — methodically slugged its way to a 35-7 victory over the visiting Cougars.

“The defense gets the momentum going. It really does,” Columbine senior defensive lineman Alex Cook said. “The sacks. The fumble recoveries. The tackles for loss. They all get everyone fired up.”

Cook and the defense helped Columbine capture a 21-0 lead right before halftime after a bit of a slow start for the Rebels. Cook sacked Cherokee Trail sophomore quarterback Eliot Ming with less than 3 minutes to go before halftime, pinning the Cougars back on their own 15-yard line.

“The sack with a big momentum changer for us,” Cook said. “We were able to use our timeouts, get the ball back and then go down and score. That is what we do. We get the ball, pound the rock and score.”

Cherokee Trail was forced to punt. Columbine showed off its 2-minute offense with a 46-yard scoring drive that took six plays and ended in a 16-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Brayden Harvey to Spencer Houle to open up a 21-0 lead with 39 second left before halftime.

“The defense played hard and made some good plays,” Columbine coach Andy Lowry said. “Will Schraeder had his second blocked punt in three games. He is going 100 mph.”

Schraeder set up the second touchdown pass of the game for Harvey that gave the Rebels a 35-0 lead. It looked like the Rebels would go in for another score to make it a running clock late in the third quarter, but a fumble by Columbine gave the ball back to the Cougars and ended the consecutive drive scoring streak at five for the Rebels.

Columbine’s offense was forced to punt on its first possession, but preceded to score touchdowns on its next five drives.

Senior running back Marquane Taylor was a scoring machine with three touchdown runs — 4, 6 and 15 yards — to spearhead the running attack that the Cougars couldn’t stop.

“It was pretty nice,” Taylor said of his three scores. “I really didn’t think I’d get three touchdowns today. It just happened.”

Harvey got the start at quarterback after junior Reeve Holliday started the week before in a 35-7 victory over Dakota Ridge.

“Both of them are doing well,” Lowry said of the quarterback situation. “Brayden is a great athlete so we are trying to do some things with him.”

Taylor said there wasn’t much of a change between the two signal-callers. Harvey hit junior James Cillessen for a 17-yard touchdown with 3:37 left in the third quarter to open up a 35-0 lead. Holliday got a couple of series in the toward the end of the game.

“It is no different,” Taylor said of Columbine using Holliday and Harvey so far this season. “They are both good.”

Columbine (3-0 record) is back at Jeffco Stadium to celebrate its homecoming. The Rebels face Arapahoe (2-0) at 7 pm Friday, Sept. 16.

“We just have to keep working hard, get better, block for each other and do all the business that we do,”

Cherokee Trail (1-2) did prevent a shutout with Ming throwing a 2-yard touchdown pass in the final minutes to senior Noah Greer. The Cougars are back in action next Friday night when they host Fort Collins.