Golden football dominates second half in win over Bear Creek

LAKEWOOD — A week after Golden football suffered its first loss of the season, the Demons returned the favor ending Bear Creek’s undefeated record.

Golden took a 34-21 victory over Bear Creek on Friday night at Jeffco Stadium in a Class 4A South Metro League game.

“After last week we needed to get some things corrected,” Golden coach Matt McDougal said referring to the 56-28 loss to Heritage a week ago. “Our kids picked it up and played. Second half we got a running play going and had to stick with it.”

Golden football simply caught fire in the second half. The Demons (6-1, 1-1 in league) scored 27 unanswered points coming out of halftime. Junior Colin Meier scored four consecutive touchdown runs in the second half to open up a 34-7 lead midway through the fourth quarter. Bear Creek and Golden were tied 7-7 at halftime. 

“He (Meier) needed to get it going after the fumble in the first half,” McDougal said. “Got on him and talked about protecting the football. He is a hard runner. Our o-line did a good job tonight and we got the win.”

Meier fumbled on Bear Creek’s 30-yard line on Golden opening drive of the game. 

“All my coaches always tell me ‘short-term memory loss’ on the field,” Meier said of his first quarter fumble. “Ever since I fumbled that ball I didn’t take two hands off the ball the entire rest of the game. I held onto it and keep believing in myself, probably more importantly.”

Meier had scoring runs of 7, 20, 8 and 9 yards over the span of about 12 minutes through the third and early fourth quarter to push Golden’s lead to 34-7 with 7:30 left in the final quarter. The junior only had one rushing touchdown on the season coming into the game against Bear Creek.

“The way my offensive line was blocking tonight, I knew it was all downhill the rest of the game,” Meier said. 

Bear Creek (6-1, 1-1) got a 28-yard passing touchdown from junior quarterback Riley Wilson to senior Donaven Tibbels-Walker and a short touchdown run by senior Jesse Cordova in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough. 

“Overall we played more of a complete game,” McDougal said. “We really haven’t put a full game together yet.”

The Bears had an impressive run-heavy opening scoring drive. Bear Creek’s 10-play, 78-yard drive was capped off by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Wilson to senior JD Lazzaro to put the Bears up 7-0 with 7:06 left in the first quarter.

Bear Creek had a golden opportunity to grab a 2-score lead. The Bears had first and goal from Golden’s 1-yard line, but a negative run and a pair of sacks pushed Bear Creek back to the 21-yard line. A fourth down pass by Wilson was intercepted to end the drive.

“We were fortunate to get that stop before halftime that allowed us to go down and get that score,” McDougal said of the defensive stand. 

Golden took advantage of the defense stop to even things up on the drive following the turnover. Junior quarterback Thatcher Matthews sprinted 57 yards for the Demons’ first touchdown to tie things up 7-7 midway through the second quarter.

The second half was all about Meier running into the end zone and the Demons taking advantage of short fields on three of the four touchdown drives.

Next up for Golden is a road trip next Friday night to Douglas County to face Ponderosa, who scored a 37-0 shutout of Highlands Ranch on Thursday night.

“I think the confidence is up going into Ponderosa,” Meier said. “We’ll be ready.”

Bear Creek will also be on the road. The Bears face Heritage on Thursday, Oct. 16. The Eagles suffered a 49-21 home loss to Dakota Ridge (7-0, 2-0) on Friday night.