Ralston Valley football gallops past Columbine in all-Jeffco playoff game

ARVADA — Welcome back to the football field Zeke Andrews.

Ralston Valley’s senior quarterback — committed to Colorado State University this week — missed the final two regular-season games due to an injury suffered in the Mustangs’ win over Columbine on Oct. 16. 

“It feels great. I missed it a lot. It feels really good to be back out here,” Andrews said his successful return netted a trip to the Class 5A state quarterfinals.

Fittingly, Andrews led the way for the No. 2 seed Ralston Valley in a 35-12 victory in a rematch against the Rebels in a Class 5A second-round playoff game Friday at the North Area Athletic Complex. 

Andrews threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to senior Ethan Shirazi and scored on a rushing touchdown in the second quarter to give Ralston Valley a 21-6 advantage at halftime.

“Having Zeke back, our offense was flowing,” Ralston Valley senior linebacker Hunter Essenpreis said. “Logan (back-up quarterback Logan Gabler) did a nice job, but it’s nice to have the first-team all-state quarterback.” 

While Andrews threw his 23rd touchdown pass and rushed for this 10th score of the season, the Mustangs (11-0 record) really focused on the ground game. 

“That was definitely No. 1 on the keys to the game,” Andrews said of the Mustangs running the football. “We wanted to establish a run game and I thought we did that really well. It’s the playoffs so we are going to do whatever it takes to win the game. If we can run the ball like we did tonight, we are going to be tough to stop.”

Junior Levi Rillos had touchdown runs of 39 and 2 yards. Senior Nico Benallo had a 1-yard touchdown run. While both Rillos and Benallo are primarily receiving targets for Andrews, they did their scoring damage on the ground against Columbine (6-6).

“Teams have a perception that we throw it all over the place. We are actually really balanced,” Ralston Valley coach Jared Yannacito said. “The offensive line played great and made holes. Our running backs all ran hard tonight.”

While Ralston Valley was clicking on the ground, the Mustangs’ defense forced a pair of turnovers in the first half that would eventually end up as touchdowns. Essenpreis made a remarkable interception of Columbine senior quarterback Lucas Gonzales late in the first quarter when it was only a 7-6 lead for Ralston Valley.

Essenpreis was able to out battle Columbine junior Lijah Vialpando for the ball after the Rebels drove into Ralston Valley territory looking for a go-ahead score.

“I play with a bunch of these guys on 7-on-7,” Essenpreis said of facing Columbine. “I know how to beat them and they know how to beat me. It’s a lot of competition and a lot of love.”

Ralston Valley’s defense also got a huge goal-line stand to end the first half. The Rebels turned the ball over on down on the Mustangs’ 1-yard line.

“For the defense to have that goal-line stance right before (halftime) just shows that this team really believes in ‘keep punching’,” Yannacito said. “Our goal this game was really just one down at a time.”

Columbine got rushing touchdowns from senior Mark Snyder, his 14th touchdown on the ground this season, along with a second-half touchdown run by junior Ben Frazier. However, it wasn’t enough for the Rebels in the all-Jeffco playoff game.

Ralston Valley will host No. 10 Mullen back at the NAAC on either Friday or Saturday next week in the state quarterfinals. Yannacito’s crew took a 20-7 victory at Mullen High School earlier in the season.

“They are an extremely talented team,” Yannacito said of Mullen, who got the lone upset when it came to 5A action Friday night with a 21-18 road victory against No. 7 Pine Creek. “They are crazy talented across the board so we are going to have to come out with a really good game plan and do what these guys have done all year long, keep punching.”

Andrews talked about punching his college plans to play up in Fort Collins for the Rams next season. Despite CSU firing its coach Jay Norvell last month, Andrews decided to verbally commit to play quarterback for the Rams next year.

“I’ve always grown up around the program,” Andrews said of committing to CSU. “We have a lot of family friends who went there. We’ve been up on that campus since I was 6 years old. It is really a dream come true to play there.”