Dakota Ridge sharp, hands Rampart its first loss

LAKEWOOD —  Six straight touchdown drives by Dakota Ridge kept the Eagles’ large homecoming crowd fired up Friday night at Jeffco Stadium.

The Eagles beat previously undefeated Rampart 50-21 in large part due to Dakota Ridge’s efficient offense led by senior quarterback Blake Palladino. The University of Northern Colorado-commit was sacked twice on Dakota Ridge’s opening drive, but answered by guiding the Eagles to touchdowns on their next six offensive possessions.

“I’m confident of our guys. I knew we were going to rally back,” Palladino said of the rough first offensive series. “Sometimes things just start out slow. You just have to persevere.”

Dakota Ridge opened up the scoring with a nice 9-play, 60-yard scoring drive that was capped off with a 5-yard touchdown run by sophomore Brady Palladino — Blake’s younger brother — in the final minute of the first quarter.

Big brother got into the scoring act next with his own 22-yard touchdown run and then a 20-yard touchdown pass to senior Alex Arnold that extended the lead to 21-0 with 4:39 left before halftime.

“We are starting three sophomores on the offensive line. Once we figured out they were blocking out instead of blocking down we fixed that,” Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz said of early adjustments that got the Eagles’ offense rolling. “They things started falling into place.”

Rampart (3-1 record) got on the board with a 23-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Hadyn Benoit to Lucas Klich with 1:17 left before halftime, but it was too much time left on the clock for the clicking Dakota Ridge offense.

“Rampart kind of got some momentum with that score,” Woitalewicz said of the Rams’ first touchdown before halftime. “We knew they were going to get the ball to start the second half. We wanted to do something to get the momentum back.”

The Eagles dug into their trick plays and receiver Jack Stewart threw a halfback touchdown pass of 32 yards to senior Cole Ehlinger with 24 seconds left to get the lead to 29-8 at halftime.

While the offensive kept on rolling in the second half with touchdown runs by senior Connor Swanson and junior Sam Callas in the third quarter to push the lead to 43-8, the Eagles’ defense stayed strong.

“We did a good job of shutting down their run game and getting a couple of turnovers,” Woitalewicz said. “Defensively we did a good job and didn’t miss a lot of tackles.”

Senior Cael Fowler had an interception in the first half and was in on several pressures on Benoit.

“There were defintely a lot of distractions, but we came out and took care of it,” Fowler said. “Big win.”

Dakota Ridge (3-1) will have a monster cross-town showdown against Chatfield (3-1) next week. The Eagles and Chargers square off at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 22, back at Jeffco Stadium. 

“We have been rolling going 3-0 in our last three game,” Palladino said. “Hopefully that goes into Chatfield. They are a tough team, but we are a tough team too. I think we have a great shot.”

The Chargers have won the last two meetings against the Eagles, including knocking Dakota Ridge out of the state playoffs back in 2021.

“The tough part this week was trying to stay focused with homecoming and then knowing what was on the horizon,” Woitalewicz said of the match-up against Chatfield. “That is going to be a great game. They are playing really well right now. It’s going to be a friendly neighborhood rivalry game.”