Oftentimes in sports, what was in the rearview mirror leaps smack in front.
That is what happens Saturday at Jefferson County Stadium when Mullen and Bear Creek tangle again. Like a boomerang, they find themselves on the same field looking for the same head-to-head supremacy with a twist – the winner continues its quest for the state’s Class 5A football championship.
No introductions or hellos are required.
Remember the season opener for both?
In late August, Bear Creek won 36-35 in double overtime on a two-point conversion pass that Mullen thought was caught out of bounds.
“That’s spilled milk now,” Mullen coach Dave Logan said. “They were a good team then. Nothing has changed much.”
Actually, plenty has changed.
Mullen, the defending 5A champion, a constant power in the state, looked vulnerable in that opener. Bear Creek, always fighting uphill for glamour and stature, looked ready to flip the order after that start.
Mullen won its next six games, lost in another last-second affair to Cherry Creek, and then won its last three. A key 14-7 victory was against Shadow Ridge of Las Vegas, which had won its opener 76-14. Mullen (9-2) had a bye after the Bear Creek loss, and then went to Vegas and got its cards aligned.
“It can take young kids awhile to get over such an emotional loss like we had to Bear Creek,” Logan said. “Our kids did it.”
Bear Creek rode that first victory to a string of seven straight before losing 21-14 in the final seconds to Columbine. Bear Creek (10-1) rebounded with three more victories, including one over then No. 1-ranked Arvada West.
“We sit where we are today because our kids grew up a lot in that game against Mullen,” Bear Creek coach Tom Thenell said. “In the time since, we have pretty much been the favorite in our games, when before we were always the underdogs in the bigger matchups. Our kids have learned to handle that. Their confidence has grown. They believe anything can happen. They’ve kept it alive. They have different expectations.”
High school football at any level provides these kinds of lessons.
The players see the pros, and some model their games after them. But prep talent is more wobbly, more green. The passion is clear and the growth is obvious.
Their mistakes on the field seem more pure and their celebrations afterward more spontaneous and merry than in the college and pro games. Because they are so far from what they will eventually become, we get to see their infancy in sports, their burst from cocoons.
With these kids, the transparency of bliss that comes with victory and the anguish with losing is numbing.
Mullen-Bear Creek in the quarterfinals will have all of that.
Toss in the renewed zest in their rivalry, the fight in both coaches who respect each other but compete against each other in fierce ways, and we have on Saturday what could be one of the most exhilarating high school football playoff games this state has ever witnessed.
“I told our team when we lost to Bear Creek that if we got better we might see them again,” Logan said. “We are underclassmen-dominated, but we have developed into a team that loves to compete. Anytime you lose a game like that, that team gets your attention. They have our attention.”
On this Saturday, in this game, big-time football becomes kid’s play.
The youngest of them will probably decide it.
Bear Creek place-kicker Tommy Flanagan is a ninth-grader. Mullen place-kicker Caleb Pavy is a 10th-grader.
“Beating a team of this caliber twice in one year is a heck of a challenge,” Thenell said. “That team’s only two losses came on the game’s last play with no time left on the clock. But this is my hardest-working team. It has been a treat. The winner is going to have a chance to go on and win a championship, and the loser is done. It’s right there in black and white.”
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
