Arvada – Mark Cerf has the kind of football instincts that cannot be coached. Sometimes that gut feeling can trump a coach’s advice.
Cerf, a junior linebacker at Faith Christian, went with his intuition and intercepted a pass in the end zone with 38 seconds remaining Saturday as the Eagles defeated visiting Brush 7-0 in the Class 2A state semifinals.
With time running out, the Beetdiggers put together a last-gasp drive, converting two fourth-down plays with clutch passes from quarterback Nick Dreitz. The second of those went for 19 yards to the soft-handed Dustin Bass, setting up the Beetdiggers on Faith Christian’s 3. A penalty pushed Brush back 5 yards, and Dreitz wanted to go back to Bass for the touchdown.
But Cerf was one step ahead of him.
“The play before, coaches told me to stay with the fullback (Aaron Quinlin),” Cerf said. “I stayed on him and they threw it to (Bass). We went out there on the next play and the coaches said to stay on the fullback again, but I knew that No. 7 was their go-to guy in that situation I saw him release, followed him to the end zone and jumped as high as I could.”
Cerf came down with the ball as Brush (11-1) lost its first game of the season. Faith Christian, the top-ranked team all year, remained undefeated at 12-0. The Eagles, state champions in 2004, will host Platte Valley in the state title game.
This one figured to be a battle, and it certainly was for fans of defense.
Faith Christian’s Levi Ostrom recovered a fumble on Brush’s first drive, but Arturo Maltos- Garcia intercepted an Eagles pass soon after. Well into the second quarter, Faith Christian put together its best drive of the game, the only one that would garner any points.
The Eagles’ 10-play, 60-yard drive was highlighted by Matt Rocha’s catch on the Brush 1-yard line. Rocha, at 5-feet-10, went up against Brush’s 6-3 Jared Spooner and pulled the ball out of Spooner’s hands for the catch. Brandon Mathis scored on the next play.
On the next series, Brush drove to the Eagles’ 16, but Ostrom broke through and sacked Dreitz for a loss of 13 yards on a third-and-7. That pushed the Beetdiggers out of field-goal territory, and they then turned over the ball on downs.
“Our defense is probably one of the best getting to the ball,” Ostrom said. “Coming into the game we had a huge reputation and we had to live up to it.”
Said a dejected Dreitz: “We worked hard all season and we just came up short today.”
Dreitz completed 12-of-22 passes for 148 yards, and Bass and Quinlin combined for 81 yards on 24 carries.
For Faith Christian, Tyler Funk picked up 83 of his 97 rushing yards in the second half, and the Eagles finished with 260 total yards.
Brush 0 0 0 0 – 0
Faith Christian 0 7 0 0 – 7
FC – Mathis 1 run (Roche kick).
