Arapahoe, which fell 27-24 in double overtime in the Continental League regular season to Highlands Ranch, returned the three-point favor Saturday with a 10-7 victory in the first round of the Class 5A football playoffs.
Arapahoe (5-5), the No. 21 seed, advanced to the second round, one of two lower seeds victorious in the first round (No. 26 Northglenn beat No. 7 Legacy on Friday night).
Elsewhere, No. 8 Chaparral (Danny Lunsky, two touchdowns) dropped No. 25 Eaglecrest 35-10. No. 14 Lakewood broke a 14-14 halftime deadlock with No. 19 Palmer and won 42-21 behind the legs of Jared McKay. The senior running back scored four of his five touchdowns in the second half.
Class 2A
Colorado Springs Christian improved to 8-2 with a 21-20 victory at Monte Vista to highlight the preliminaries. CSC’s Nathan Walker ran for two touchdowns.
The only other road team to win was Holy Family (8-2), which handled Gunnison’s Cowboys 34-21. The 2A powers all cruised: Brush (two touchdowns by Dustin Bass) moved to 10-0 with a 43-13 victory over Olathe. Trinidad rolled Roaring Fork 26-7. Top-rated Faith Christian routed Platte Canyon 42-7. Denver Christian shut out Lamar 20-0 as three Crusaders scored touchdowns. Platte Valley downed Erie 26-7 (Ty Tschacher threw for a touchdown, ran for one and caught one), and it was the same score for Salida (two touchdowns by Zach Scholl) over Roosevelt.
Class 1A
The chase is on to get to Limon. Consider Burlington and Akron entered. The two teams that may meet in the semifinals turned in terrific performances in the preliminaries. Brian Hendricks ran for 322 yards and four touchdowns as Burlington got past visiting Lutheran 27-10. Akron (10-0) had no trouble crushing Rocky Ford 55-0.
Their two opponents in the quarterfinals won road games. Wray, which will play Burlington, won at Grand Valley 27-6. Byers, which next plays Akron, won 27-6 at Custer County.
Hayden, which takes on Limon, downed Sargent 14-0. Del Norte (Michael Messier passed for a touchdown and ran for the game-winner) had just enough to beat Paonia 14-6. Lyons (Josh Ackerman, 141 yards rushing and a touchdown) beat Meeker 28-6.
Class A 8-man
Two road teams in the preliminaries earned interesting victories – Haxtun handled host Elbert 33-14 and Nucla had the wild one of the round, 56-51 at Wiley.
The rest of the heavyweights held serve: Defending champion Merino beat Cheyenne Wells 62-6. Granada motored past Plateau Valley 48-32. Dove Creek (Matt Stiasny, 223 yards rushing and four touchdowns) beat Hoehne 36-6. Stratton slipped past Dayspring Christian 20-13 as Todd May threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. Sedgwick County beat Flagler 31-14 and Sangre de Cristo rolled Springfield 56-22.
Class A 6-man
In anticipation of their semifinal meeting, top-ranked and undefeated Idalia (Lucas Devlin, five touchdowns) crushed Pawnee 72-12 and No. 2 Kit Carson (three touchdowns each by Damon Dechant and Tony Arroyo) drubbed Otis 63-13.
Idalia, which has played in every 6-man title game but one (2004) since 1998, downed Kit Carson in the teams’ 2006 opener and passed on a chance to meet in Week 9, but will do it again next weekend in Idalia in the semifinals.
The top bracket semifinal will have Peetz (Gage Roelle, three touchdowns), a 46-16 winner over Hi-Plains, playing at Eads, a 46-32 winner over Woodlin.
