Green Mountain football holds off Evergreen in big 3A West Metro battle

LAKEWOOD — Green Mountain football hasn’t missed the playoffs during a normal season since 2017.

This year’s Rams don’t want the distinction of falling short of the postseason for the first time in nearly a decade.

“We wanted to keep this going,” Green Mountain senior Ethyan Polston said of the Rams’ string of playoff appearances minus the shortened COVID season in 2020. “We don’t want to be that team that doesn’t make it to the semifinals and doesn’t preform. We are going to keep going and hopefully it works out for us.”

Green Mountain took a big step forward to getting back to the postseason Thursday night at Jeffco Stadium. The Rams defeated rival Evergreen 35-30 to stay undefeated in Class 3A West Metro League play.

Green Mountain (4-4, 3-0 in league) extended its winning streak to five over Evergreen (5-2, 2-1). The Cougars’ last win over the Rams was in 2020. Evergreen took a 49-7 victory during the modified COVID season. 

The Rams were No. 22 in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index before the victory. The top-16 teams get into the 3A state tournament field, but conference champions get automatic bids. Green Mountain winning a fourth consecutive league title is the best way the Rams can keep their postseason streak alive.

“We need that 4-peat,” Green Mountain senior Drew Contreras said of the Rams attempting to win a fourth straight league title. “That Conifer game is our championship right now.”

Green Mountain squares off against Conifer (6-1, 2-0) on Halloween Night next week at 7:30 p.m. at Trailblazer Stadium. That game very well might determine the league champion.

“I’ve been prepared for this. I was prepared to be 0-3. I was prepared to be 1-4. Those teams that we played were really talented,” Green Mountain coach Anthony Rankin said of the Rams’ non-league losses to Windsor, Corona del Mar (CA), Pomona and Lutheran. “I knew we had a shot to win this league. I felt like we were the favorite. Evergreen and Conifer are the two teams we needed to get through. This is one down, we’ll see how it goes against Conifer.”

Evergreen gave Green Mountain a tussle. The Cougars trailed 22-3 just before halftime, but Evergreen did get a late touchdown before halftime to cut the lead to 22-10. Sophomore Tom van den Bos threw a 14-yard touchdown to junior Grady White. 

Sophomore kicker Karrik Boyle kicked three field goals for the Cougars to keep Evergreen within striking distance. A 1-yard touchdown run by junior Gianni Volpe for the Cougars cut Green Mountain’s lead to 28-23 early in the fourth quarter.

“(Evergreen) did a great job of scheming us after halftime,” Rankin said of the Cougars scoring 20 points in the second half. “They adjusted to what we were doing. It challenged us to get back to the Xs and Os. Give credit to Evergreen. They fight.”

Polston did plenty of fighting and producing big plays for the Rams. His 77-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter from freshman quarterback Hudson Allison was the longest touchdown pass of the season for the Rams.

“We have been working on that all year. I had to put trust in him (Allison) at the start of the year to get it there,” Polston said of the deep ball. “I saw the defensive guy go down a little too far. I was going to make a play and get Allison a 77-yard TD.”

Polston finished with two touchdown catches, but his 3rd-down grab on Green Mountain’s final scoring drive might have been his biggest catch. It kept the drive alive that eventually finished with Contreras scoring his third touchdown of the next to make it a 35-23 lead for the Rams.

“I had to make a play for my seniors,” Polston said of the key third-down catch on the Rams’ final scoring drive. “If we don’t win this game we don’t go to playoffs. That would be devastating for us. I was just thinking about my team, my boys that I’ve been riding with forever.”

Evergreen did get back within a score with a 15-yard touchdown pass from van den Bos to junior Grady White with 4:02 left in the game. However, the Rams were able to run out the clock thanks to a few big first-down runs by senior Shane Kennedy and Allison.

“That game got a little too close,” Contreras admitted. “We didn’t play at the end like we wanted to, but we pulled out with the victory.”

Evergreen — No. 14 in the seeding before the loss — finishes off its regular season against Wheat Ridge and the annual Mountain Bowl versus rival Conifer. The Cougars could still be playoff bound if they can win out.