Lakewood – Ralston Valley senior Nate Ormsby had never seen a team block consecutive punts until he was right in the middle of it. Teammate Tanner Jones wanted to make it three in a row.
But two big special-teams plays turned out to be enough for the Mustangs, and they sucked the life out of a luckless Dakota Ridge team in a one-sided, 38-17 victory Saturday in the Class 4A Mountain Plains League opener for the teams at Jefferson County Stadium.
“I never have seen that before,” Ormsby said of the blocked punts. “It was definitely the turning point. You could see the punter was nervous, so he was easy to get to.”
Said Jones, Ralston Valley’s defensive co-captain: “We’ve had a stronger emphasis on our special teams lately, and the coaches put us in the right spots to make plays. … I was hoping we’d get three so we could get the record for a quarter.”
Ralston Valley took a 20-0 lead when Alex Mazotti blocked Taylor Accardi’s punt that Ormsby recovered in the end zone. Ormsby then blocked the Eagles’ next punt to set up a field goal by Justin Mihalcin. The score went to 31-0 late in the third quarter on an 8-yard run by Josh Meneses.
Aside from roughly five minutes of action late in the second half, aided by Mustangs miscues and some questionable officiating, this game was all Ralston Valley. The Mustangs are ranked second in The Denver Post/9News 4A poll and remain undefeated at 4-0.
“You know what, it was one of those days. We blocked one of their punts, it hits one of our guys and they get a first down,” Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz said.
No. 9 Dakota Ridge (2-2 overall, 0-1 league) punted three times, had two punts blocked, fumbled twice and had five three-and-out series on its first seven drives. The Eagles finished with 165 total yards, with 46 of those coming on a late reverse pass from T.J. Berge to Greg Samson. That set up a 22-yard scrambling touchdown by quarterback Eric Cain.
Back-to-back fumbles by the Mustangs set up another touchdown and a field goal for Dakota Ridge.
But Ralston Valley already had control. Meneses scored two touchdowns and finished with 46 yards on the ground, and Payton McLachlan pulled a Jerome Bettis with two touchdowns on four carries. Quarterback Cameron Wright completed 9-of-18 passes for 156 yards and picked up another 75 yards on 14 carries.
“We just powered the ball down and ended up getting lucky a few times,” Wright said.
Ralston Valley next will take on defending 4A state champion ThunderRidge, which lost 28-7 to Wheat Ridge, on Thursday.
Ralston Valley 7 16 8 7 – 38
Dakota Ridge 0 0 7 10 – 17
RV – Meneses 2 run (Mihalcin kick). RV – McLachlan 1 run (Mihalcin kick). RV – Ormsby recovered block punt in end zone (kick failed). RV – FG Mihalcin 25. RV – Meneses 8 run (Meneses run). DR – Cain 22 run (Bell kick). DR – Kadnuck 31 pass from Cain (Bell kick). DR – FG Bell 41. RV – McLachlan 1 run (Mihalcin kick).
