Highlands Ranch – Most coaches will tell you it takes anywhere from one quarter to half of the first game to work out the kinks.
For the Mountain Vista defense Friday night, the smell of the grass apparently made any preseason jitters disappear. The Golden Eagles, whose offense came around in the latter stages of the first half, blanked Skyline 23-0 at Shea Stadium.
“We’ve been very strong defensively throughout our history,” said Mountain Vista coach Ric Cash, who has been with the school since its inception four years ago. “Obviously that’s a reputation or a mentality the kids bring, and that’s where a lot of our focus has been.”
Both defenses played a solid first half. Skyline’s Nick Zissimos picked off Danny Beck on Mountain Vista’s first possession, stopping the Golden Eagles’ first drive in the red zone. Mountain Vista returned the favor on Skyline’s best scoring chance in the second quarter, with Stephen Montrose recovering a Colton Lehl fumble on the 13-yard line.
A 13-play, six-minute drive in the second quarter ensued. A steady dose of sophomore running back Eric Longoria (eight rushes for 35 yards on the drive) as well as a 25-yard pass from Beck to Matt Tuten set up the Golden Eagles in the red zone again. Beck hit 6-foot-4 tight end Griffin Rasel from 5 yards out to take a 7-0 lead.
“We started to get some momentum when we scored that first touchdown,” said Beck. “We got some good field position early in the second half and were able to take advantage of that and roll from there.”
The defense made its biggest statement coming out of the locker room. On Skyline’s first drive of the second half, Lehl went minus-2 yards, quarterback Cody Ganz was sacked by Tyler Whitmer and then a busted play forced Ganz to lose another 6 yards.
“We picked up our game and realized what we could do,” said junior linebacker Max Hearn, who finished with four tackles for losses. “We expected a few different plays, and they showed us a few new things, but we realized what we had to do and we stepped it up.”
