Cherry Hills Village – Slow and steady doesn’t always win the race.
It certainly didn’t Saturday against Kent Denver.
The unranked Sun Devils were ground down by Holy Family’s methodical ground game but forced two key turnovers and made enough big plays to engineer a 28-20 Class 2A Metropolitan League upset at Justin DeSorrento Memorial Field.
Kent Denver (5-2, 4-2 league) got three touchdowns and 186 yards rushing from senior tailback Brendon Henderson, and linebacker Michael Box forced a fumble with 1 minute, 57 seconds remaining to drop the eighth- ranked Tigers to 5-2, 5-2.
“We figured we play hard every play, something’s going to bust,” said Henderson, who ran for 153 yards in the second half.
Ian Ferrell also came up huge for the Sun Devils. Ferrell hauled in two catches for 54 yards to set up T.J. Slattery’s 4-yard touchdown run in the second quarter and returned a punt 42 yards to set up Henderson’s touchdown midway through the third quarter.
The 6-foot-4, 205-pound senior also had a handful of crushing tackles and blocks.
“I did what I could to help the team,” Ferrell said. “It’s the little things that make the difference in victories.”
Behind fullback Koehler Anderson (145 yards) and running back Tim Stockhausen (104), Holy Family had 21 first downs to Kent Denver’s 11. But twice the Tigers were stopped at the Kent Denver 20 and had to settle for field goals.
“We did the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time, and maybe in another week it wouldn’t have affected us so much, but they were a good team,” Anderson said.
The Tigers controlled the game early and led 7-0 before the Sun Devils came to life when Slattery intercepted quarterback Patrick Chappell. Kent Denver went 37 yards to tie the game and went up for good on Slattery’s touchdown with one minute left in the first half.
Henderson added two touchdowns in the third quarter, the second on a fake reverse to Ferrell that befuddled the Tigers’ defense and went around the left side for 81 yards.
“We worked on that all week in practice,” Henderson said. “I used to be a quarterback so I know how to hide the ball well.”
Holy Family made it 28-20 with Anderson’s touchdown with 6:48 remaining and drove down to the Kent Denver 32 with just more than two minutes remaining before Box knocked the ball out of Chappell’s hands.
Holy Family 7 3 3 7 – 20
Kent Denver 0 13 15 0 – 28
HF – Stockhausen 2 run (Glynn kick). KD – Henderson 10 run (Kraus kick). KD – Slattery 4 run (kick blocked). HF – FG Glynn 37. KD – Henderson 1 run (Henderson run). HF – FG Glynn 37. KD – Henderson 81 run (Kraus kick). HF – Anderson 1 run (Glynn kick).
