Aurora – Ryan Cole was the kitchen sink Thursday night for Monarch.
Unable to wear out the upstart Aurora Central Trojans with their power toss and sweeps and five running back rotation, the top-ranked Coyotes found their fullback trap in the second half.
“We needed that big-time,” Coyotes coach Phil Bravo said after Monarch’s 35-28 victory. “That play, we’ve been missing for a year and a half. That play is going to make us tougher to stop down the road.”
Cole touched the ball for the first time in the third quarter and finished with 125 yards and two touchdowns as Monarch piled up 406 yards rushing against its Class 4A Skyline League foe at Aurora Public Schools Stadium.
“We were running our pitch game and our sweep and that was getting us some good yards,” said Cole, who scored on runs of 30 and 9 yards. “Then we thought we’d mix in a few traps and that started working for us, so we kept going with that.”
Running back Cale Soole led Monarch (5-0, 4-0 in league) with 150 yards and a touchdown and senior Rocky Borgstrom added 94 yards and two TDs.
But the Trojans (3-2, 2-2) matched those gaudy numbers behind their spread offense and lightning-quick skill players.
Quarterback Sean Cunningham threw for two TDs and ran for another. The 6-foot-2 senior completed 11 passes for 289 yards and ran for 92.
Stephen Franklin had four catches for 87 yards and Nelson Archelus had three catches for 102 yards, including a spinning 31-yard TD to help tie the game 20-20 late in the third quarter.
“We know we can play with anybody offensively. It was a matter of just staying focused,” Cunningham said.
Cole’s touchdowns put Monarch up 35-20 before the Trojans answered on a nifty 25-yard TD catch and run by Brock Veasley, his second score of the game.
With 3:55 left, the Trojans elected to kick the ball deep rather than try an onside kick but couldn’t stop Monarch’s offense from running out the clock.
“I give them credit,” Bravo said of the Trojans. “They’re not even close to the same team they were last year. They have as good a skill position players as any team in the state.”
Cunningham threw for 110 yards in the first quarter and ran for a 25-yard touchdown with 2:13 left in the second quarter as the Trojans led 13-12 at halftime.
The Coyotes had just one first down in the first quarter but got their grinding offense churning in the second, thanks in part to two Aurora Central turnovers.
Monarch 0 12 16 7 – 35
Aurora Central 7 6 7 8 – 28
AC – Veasley 1 run (Escobedo kick). M – Borgstrom 12 run (run failed). M – Borgstrom 1 run (pass failed). AC – Cunningham 25 run (pass failed). M – Soole 1 run (Stepsnik run). AC – Archelus 31 pass from Cunningham (Escobedo kick). M – Cole 30 run (Borgstrom run). M – Cole 9 run (Henry kick). AC – Veasley 25 pass from Cunningham (Franklin pass from Cunningham).
