Green Mountain clinches 3A Jeffco League title in dominate fashion

LAKEWOOD — Green Mountain senior Dominic Sanchez had the defensive football hat-trick Friday at Trailblazer Stadium.

Sanchez had three sacks on three consecutive plays on Littleton quarterback Tim Higgins late in the first quarter in the Class 3A Jeffco League game.

“That is pretty rare,” Green Mountain coach Jesse German said of Sanchez’s trio of sacks. “That looked good.”

The Rams — No. 3 in the CHSAANow.com Class 3A football rankings — looked more that just good in a dominating 65-0 victory over Littleton. Green Mountain (9-0, 4-0 in 3A Jeffco) spearheaded by an impressive defense wrapped up the conference title in dominate fashion.

“I’ll have to go with the sacks honestly,” Sanchez said when asked if what meant more, the two touchdown runs in the first few minutes of the first quarter that opened up a 15-0 lead or the three straight sacks. “You don’t see that every day.”

Green Mountain poured it on early with the Lions’ offense not getting first down until their ninth possession of the first half after the Rams had already opened up a 51-0 lead.

The Rams remarkable defense has allowed just 43 points in nine games. Green Mountain has held opponents to single digits in eight games with only Evergreen scoring in double digits a couple of weeks ago in a 24-23 double-overtime victory for the Rams.

“We always want to start fast,” German said after the Rams lead 37-0 after the first quarter and then scored on the second play of the second quarter to induce a running clock against the Lions (5-4, 1-3). “What I’m starting to see from this team is they are waiting to react. They are building that attack mentality.”

Green Mountain also had a couple of special teams scoring plays in the first quarter. The Rams’ blocked a punt that rolled out the back of the end zone to put Green Mountain up 30-0 with 58 seconds left in the first quarter.

Ten seconds later, senior Colton Brown was in the end zone returning the kickoff after the safety for a touchdown. The Rams also had a defensive touchdown when junior Austin Contreras recovered a fumble and ran it in for a score.

“We put a lot of pride into playing physical football,” German said. “It starts up front on both sides of the football.”

The Rams had seven different players score touchdowns. Junior Nowell Dacres matched Sanchez with a pair of touchdown runs. Max Choboian, Kole Stratman and Waylon Weeks also found the end zone on touchdown runs.

“We have all the weapons we need,” said Green Mountain senior quarter Zach Wallace, who added that he believes teams are ‘sleeping’ on the undefeated Rams.

Green Mountain closes out its regular season next Friday night at Skyview (3-5, 1-2) in Thornton. The Rams most likely will get a top-8 seed and host a first-round game for the 16-team 3A state tournament that begins in two weeks.

“What we control is next week,” German said of not worrying around RPI points. “We want to go out and play a great game next week. Like I always say…the next week is the most important game of the season.”