Fountain – Wheat Ridge went from damage control to just plain wrecking things Friday night.
Fountain-Fort Carson was the unfortunate victim of opportunities lost.
“They came out and they shut us down the first couple series,” Farmers quarterback Dylan Orms said. “We’re just persistent. There’s no giving up in this team.”
Orms scored four touchdowns and rushed for 111 yards on 11 carries and running back Beau Stevens scored once and ran for 82 yards as Wheat Ridge scored on five straight possessions to rout the Trojans 40-9 at Guy R. Barickman Stadium.
The Trojans (10-2) easily could have led 17-0 in the first quarter led 3-0 before the Farmers (11-1) rattled off 40 consecutive points.
The fourth-seeded Farmers will face Class 4A Mountain Plains League rival and ninth-seeded Ralston Valley in next week’s state semifinal. The Mustangs (11-1) defeated Wheat Ridge 8-7 in Week 9 on a touchdown and two-point conversion with no time remaining.
The evening started off gloriously for the Trojans but slipped quickly into a frustrating cycle of unfortunate events.
The Trojans held the Farmers to one first down in the first quarter, took a 3-0 lead on their first drive, intercepted Orms and twice drove inside the Wheat Ridge 17. But Adam Lozano fumbled at the 1 and quarterback Will Paddock missed a wide-open Marcus Rosenthal in the end zone as the Trojans failed to add any points.
Cue the Farmers.
“We’ve got some poised seniors, and we didn’t panic,” Farmers coach Reid Kahl said. “I just knew once our offense got going, I felt like we could physically beat them up, up front. And that’s what we did. We went right at them. We didn’t try to go perimeter or anything.”
Wheat Ridge capped it next two drives with touchdown runs by Orms and Justin Long intercepted Paddock on the right sideline and returned it 41 yards as the Farmers went up 21-3 with 2:20 remaining in the first half.
“We were in cover-three (defense) and I bailed,” Long said. “It was either going to be a slant or a stop route and I jumped the stop route.”
Things got worse for the Trojans when they marched 79 yards before the break but again came away with nothing. Paddock thought he scored on a 15-yard run but was stopped at the 1 with 16 seconds left. With no timeouts remaining Paddock was stopped on the sneak and the Trojans were unable to run another play before time ran out.
“If we had gotten those two (touchdowns) early. We could have had them down 17,” Trojans coach Mitch Johnson said. “They made some plays and I think their size wore on us a little bit.”
Wheat Ridge 0 21 13 6 – 40
Fountain-Fort Carson 3 0 0 6 – 9
FFC – FG Rosenthal 33. WR – D. Orms 1 run (M. Wright kick). WR – D. Orms 13 run (kick failed). WR – Long 41 interception return (M. Wright run). WR – D. Orms 1 run (kick failed). WR – D. Orms 5 run (M. Wright kick). WR – Stevens 1 run (kick failed). FFC – Smith 19 pass from Paddock (kick failed).
