Arvada West evens it up with rival Ralston Valley on the flag football field

ARVADA — Arvada West flag football held on for a huge Class 5A Jeffco League victory Wednesday night at the North Area Athletic Complex.

The Wildcats got out to a quick 13-0 lead in the first quarter against rival Ralston Valley at the NAAC. While A-West didn’t score after the opening quarter, the Wildcats’ defense made enough plays to edge the Mustangs 13-12.

“The league is up for grabs,” A-West coach Deven DelReal said after the Wildcats handed Ralston Valley its first conference defeat. “That was big for us in our state rankings too.”

A-West (7-2, 4-1 in league), Ralston Valley (7-2, 3-1) and Valor Christian (7-1, 3-1) are in a tight conference race. The five-team 5A Jeffco League play features a total of eight conference games with home-and-away match-ups to every team plays league opponents twice.

Ralston Valley edged A-West in both teams’ league opener on Aug. 27. The Mustangs took a 20-18 victory to take an early lead in the conference standings.

In front of a good Wednesday night crowd at NAAC, A-West got even.

“I guess we really weren’t thinking about league,” A-West senior Linley McReynolds said of getting revenge on Ralston Valley. “These are our rivals and we’ve got to win. We came in confidence and left even more confident.”

Sophomore quarterback Emerson Drake had touchdown passes to McReynolds and junior Alexis Maes to get the Wildcats on top early.

Ralston Valley dominated most of the second quarter. The Mustangs drove past A-West’s 20-yard line four times, but only came away with one touchdown. Senior quarterback Kailyn Korkus threw a short touchdown pass to junior Lilli Lombardi to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 13-6 with 1:02 left before halftime.

“Our defense is probably the best part of our team right now,” DelReal said. “They play with a lot of heart. They have short-term memory. When big plays happen they bounce back.”

Ralston Valley threatened again late in the first half, but a touchdown pass as time expired was waved off due to a holding penalty to keep A-West in the lead at the break.

McReynolds was able to grab an interception to end a Ralston Valley drive last in the third quarter, but the Mustangs used a turnover of its own to stay in the game.

A big interception and return by Ralston Valley senior Ashlyn Callahan on the first play of the fourth quarter gave the Mustangs the chance to tie or take the lead. Korkus scored on a 1-yard touchdown run with 7:54 left in the fourth quarter, but a failed 2-point conversion kept A-West with a 13-12 lead.

Ralston Valley got the ball back to go for the go-ahead score, but sophomore Jocelyn Ayriss showed off her soccer goalie skills with a leaping interception with just under two minutes left in the game.

“Jocelyn does a great job covering the whole field,” DelReal said of Ayriss. “She is third in the state right now in interceptions.”

It looked like Ralston Valley would have one last chance to take the lead, but a fourth-down and short gamble from midfield paid off for A-West. The Wildcats were going to punt, but after taking a timeout they decided to go for it.

“All of us on offense said, ‘We are not punting.’ We were confident,” McReynolds said of the fourth-down play. “We were feeling it. When you are feeling it you are going to make it. We needed that and (Drake) made it happen.”

Drake connected with Maes on a short route in the middle of the field to pick up the first down. A couple of kneel downs later by Drake, A-West escaped with the 13-12 victory.

“Emerson has really stepped up and is getting to that level,” McReynolds said of Drake filling the quarterback shoes this season from Saylor Swanson.

Swanson threw for nearly 5,000 yards and 81 touchdowns in the Wildcats’ run to the 5A state championship game.