Highlands Ranch – The players were game, but the play wasn’t crisp.
The effort was there, but the execution will take more time.
“Typical first game,” Mountain Vista coach Ric Cash said after his Golden Eagles opened Continental League play Friday night at Shea Stadium with a 13-10 victory over Ponderosa in The Denver Post game of the week.
There were more possessions, penalties and miscues than points, but the Golden Eagles will take it.
“It was a lot of fun,” Mountain Vista safety Patrick Mahnke said. “A lot of ups and downs, but a lot of fun.”
Mahnke, a senior who has committed verbally to the University of Colorado, delighted the packed stands with two key plays – a blocked punt that led to his team’s tying touchdown early in the second quarter, then recovered a muffed punt that prefaced a field goal that tied the score at 10 down the stretch of the fourth quarter.
“That’s why he’s going to CU,” Cash said.
Ultimately, the Golden Eagles, who entered the season replacing multiple skill players, clinched it by turning in a solid drive that featured a 19-yard look-in pass from quarterback Eric Anderson to Matt Smith and a stellar 27-yard gain down the left sideline when Smith picked an Anderson delivery away from a Ponderosa defender just outside the Mustangs’ 10-yard line.
It led to a missed field goal by Phil Prosia, but a roughing-the-kicker penalty gave him another shot 5 yards closer. His 28-yarder, also executed after a high snap that made him hesitate for a split second, was good with 4:01 to play.
Ponderosa could only make it to its own 33 before giving it over on downs with 2:31 remaining. The Golden Eagles’ Eric Longoria, held in check rushing by a Mustangs defense bolstered by super linebacker Jon Major, cranked out a first down to seal it.
“These are all rivalry games and I don’t know how many more I can take,” Cash said of his team’s second season in 5A.
Meanwhile, Ponderosa had multiple chances, but never quite got in sync with coach Randy Huff’s switch to an Urban Meyer spread offense.
“Just too many mistakes,” Huff said, lamenting, among other items, an interception, a lost fumble, six punts, giving it over on downs twice and no touchdowns after quarterback Kris Kreymborg broke loose for a 53-yarder on the seventh play of the game. The Mustangs also managed a 43-yard field goal in the third quarter by Mike Geiger.
“We played with great heart and never gave up,” Cash said. “In all, a typical first game.”
Ponderosa 7 0 3 0 – 10
Mountain Vista 0 7 0 6 – 13
P – Kreymborg 53 run (Geiger kick). MV – Ohara 11 pass from Anderson (Prosia kick) P – FG Geiger 43. MV – FG Prosia 21. MV – FG Prosia 28.
Staff writer Neil H. Devlin can be reached at 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com.
