5A football: Cherry Creek beats Valor Christian for fourth straight state title

DENVER – Carlson Tann and the rest of his Cherry Creek teammates could not have asked for a better ride through high school football.

Still, the Bruins’ senior running back wanted to make sure they finished it the right way.

Tann was sensational in his final game, rushing for 164 yards and a touchdown to help the Bruins to a 24-17 victory against Valor Christian in the Class 5A state championship game on Saturday at Empower Field at Mile High.

Cherry Creek (12-2) became the first 5A football team in state history to win four consecutive state championships. 

“It’s amazing to be able to do something that no other team in the history of Colorado has done,” said Tann, who was named the game’s most outstanding player. “It’s a great pleasure.

“I was listening to this little podcast on the bus ride here and it was like, it’s not over till it’s over. This is my last ride. I went out here and I had to give up 300% for these guys right here just so we can get this fourth one.”

This was the third consecutive title game matchup between Cherry Creek and Valor Christian (11-3), but this was the closest of the set. Cherry Creek had won the previous two years by identical 21-0 scores.

In this one, the Bruins trailed 7-3 at the half. They had a missed field goal and two interceptions in the first half.

“I talked to the team about this very thing last night,” Bruins head coach Dave Logan said. “I said, ‘We’re used to playing in front. What happens if things don’t go right for us early tomorrow? What happens if we’re behind? How do we answer that? I reminded them in the halftime lockerroom of exactly what we had talked about. Here it is. We have 24 minutes to win a state championship. Credit to the kids; they were able to come out and really make a lot of plays in the second half.”

Tann had a 49-yard run on the first play of the second half. On the next play, he scored on a 16-yard run. After the Cherry Creek defense forced a punt, the Bruins needed just five plays to score again. Backup quarterback Brian Rudden, who took over the offense in the second half, connected with Ismael Cisse for a 34-yard touchdown.

Early in the fourth quarter, Cherry Creek increased its lead to 24-10 on a 4-yard touchdown run by Blake Purchase.

“I feel like it was the (offensive) line,” Tann said of what got the Bruins’ offense going in the second half. “The O-line was just screaming at us. There was all like, let’s get this together and they were doing a hell of a job blocking this whole game.”

Cherry Creek finished with 409 yards of offense, with 222 of those coming in the second half. The Bruins ran for 183 yards in the second half, and 303 for the game.

“We were in the locker room saying, ‘Hey, get a stop here; momentum is on our side,’” Valor Christian coach Bret McGatlin said. “Obviously they had a couple good adjustments right off the bat that put them down easy. We never really recovered from that. I love how our kids fought back, though, and still competed in this game, but they did a good job in that second half with their adjustments.”

With 1 minute, 53 seconds to play, Valor Christian’s Asher Weiner connected with Cash Spence for a 28-yard touchdown pass on fourth-and-9 to cut the deficit to 24-17. The Eagles were unable to recover the ensuing onsides kick, however.

“I wanted a four quarter game, we got a four quarter game,” McGatlin said. “Just didn’t come out on our side today.”

After losing so many seniors from last year, however, McGatlin said the Eagles should be proud of what they did this season.

“This is a team that just overachieved,” he said. “The fact they got here and then also battled their butts off in this game, if they’re disappointed they shouldn’t be because I’m proud of how they competed.”

On the other side, Logan was proud of his team for making history. In addition to becoming the first team to four-peat, the Bruins won the 13^th state title in school history. It is their fifth title with Logan, as they also won in 2014.

“It feels pretty good,” Logan said. “I was really proud of our guys.

“I thought we were a little anxious in the first half and uncharacteristic mistakes. We had three turnovers in this game and we could go back three or four years and not find a game we’ve turned the ball over three times. But you know what? To the kids’ credit, we stayed the course. … Credit to the kids for resilience they showed and we stayed the course.”