Arvada West football captures first playoff win since 2018

LAKEWOOD — Arvada West’s football program was able to get a monkey off its back Sunday afternoon at Trailblazer Stadium.

The Wildcats’ 59-29 victory over Fort Collins in the opening round of the Class 5A state tournament was the first playoff win for A-West since 2018.

“Winning games if 5A is hard. Winning playoff games is tough,” A-West coach Brad Pyatt said after the win

A-West’s previous postseason win was six years ago when the Wildcats took a 25-7 victory over Legend.

“It feels great to get this win and win as a team,” A-West junior Jaiden Nichols said. “After losing (first-round playoff games) two years in a row, this feels great.”

It was a rare Sunday of high school football action at Trailblazer Stadium.

One of the largest November snowstorms in Colorado history pushed several first-round playoff games to Sunday, including the 5A match-up between No. 19 Fort Collins and No. 14 Arvada West.

The Wildcats sprinted out to a commanding 28-0 victory early in the second quarter scoring on their first four possessions. Juniors Jaxon Pyatt, Jaiden Green and Adrian Symalla all had rushing touchdowns in the first quarter to get things going. Green had his second touchdown run with 9:54 left in the second quarter to push the lead to 28-0.

“We have two of the best backs in the state I think,” Pyatt said of Green and Symalla. “When we get them going it makes it easy. Today both of them did a heck of a job. The offensive line did a great job. That is what we want to see moving forward.”

Junior quarterback Logan Duhachek tossed a 28-yard touchdown pass to Nichols to make the score 35-0 just before halftime. Then things got a little weird.

Fort Collins (6-5 record) had a nice scoring drive, capped off by a 3-yard touchdown run by junior Jack McKeon. A-West got the momentum back with a 50-yard field goal by senior Noah Hermsen as the clock expired to give the Wildcats a seemingly comfortable 38-7 halftime lead.

However, the Lambkins scored 22 points in the third quarter to cut A-West’s lead to 45-29 with 3:10 left in the third quarter.

“We made some mistakes — fumbling, throwing picks and penalties — those are the things we need to get cleaned up before next week,” Coach Pyatt said. “When we play we are as good as anyone.”

Symalla’s third touchdown run early in the fourth quarter calmed things down a little on the Wildcats’ sideline to get the lead to 52-29.

“I knew my team wasn’t going to give up. We were going to fight,” Nichols said of the Lambkins cutting the game to a 2-score game. “I had trust in my team.”

Duhachek threw his second touchdown pass of the game, hitting junior Keegan Balistreri in the corner of the end zone for the twelfth touchdown of the game 

“The one thing I’m proud about this group is they are grinding and fighting the whole time,” Coach Pyatt said. “They get through it and get the win. It did got scary for a couple of minutes.”

A-West (7-4) will face No. 3 Ralston Valley at noon Saturday, Nov. 16, at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada. The Mustangs (9-1) received a first-round bye after going undefeated in the tough 5A Metro League that sent 5-of-6 teams to the 24-team 5A state tournament. 

Ralston Valley just edged A-West 17-7 in both teams’ regular-season finale on Halloween night. The Wildcats led 7-3 heading to the fourth quarter, but Ralston Valley scored a pair of touchdowns in the final quarter to push its winning streak to five games heading into the postseason.

“It feels great to play (Ralston Valley) again,” Nichols said. “I have confidence playing RV. When we played them last time our offense kind of had an off game, but our offense played a really great game today. We’ll be ready for RV.”