AURORA — A week after winning a thrilling, late decision over rival Cherry Creek, its best victory in 2007, Grandview didn’t seem to be at Legacy Stadium in the first half Thursday night against Smoky Hill.
The Wolves were there in body, but certainly not spirit, in botching multiple opportunities and easily could have been trailing by more than the one point it did after 24 minutes.
However, Grandview got its ground game going in a 14-point third quarter, turned up the defensive pressure on the Buffaloes and earned a 26-7 victory that boosted it to 6-2 overall.
Ranked No. 7 in The Denver Post/9News Class 5A poll, the Wolves improved to 5-1 in the Centennial League, are a victory away from securing second place behind undefeated Mullen and are “ecstatic” about their standing, according to coach John Schultz.
Now, about that flat first half …
“After such a high (against Cherry Creek), it’s always hard coming back the next week,” Grandview senior running back Bo Bolen said. “It’s such a rivalry week. It’s hard to stay mentally prepared. We didn’t do what we had to do in the first half. Naturally, there will be a little, emotional dropoff.”
There was, and Schultz concurred but will take the victory.
“It was a little bit of an ugly game,” he said. “It’s real hard after last week’s win. The kids were focused and intense, but it’s just not the same. Smoky Hill’s a good football team, much improved from the last couple of years. We’re happy with the win, happy the kids came through.”
Bolen, who has received interest from Stanford and TCU, provided the most glee against the Buffaloes (4-4, 2-4), running for 213 yards and two touchdowns.
Grandview, which Schultz said has had trouble on defense on early drives, gave up a 28-yard touchdown pass from Robert Felberg to Clinton Smith on Smoky Hill’s first possession and survived two other scoring threats.
Its first score was a gift.
The Wolves’ defensive line was beginning to exert pressure and the Buffs tried to take advantage on a fake punt from their own 5-yard line. The Wolves stopped it, got the ball on the 7 and Bolen took two plays to run it in for a score.
However, the snap was botched on the conversion attempt and Grandview went into the locker room at halftime trailing 7-6.
But increased pressure up front on defense generated by the likes of Craig Griffiths, TJ Loken, Josh Lopez and Kyle McCall produced nine sacks. Felberg, who was lifted late, also misfired on multiple attempts, the Buffs dropped a handful of passes and, ultimately, wore down up front.
“They do that to a lot of people,” Smoky Hill coach John Thompson said. “We did some things well for a while … but we didn’t pull the trigger when we had to a couple of times.
“On the fake punt, we thought they were going to block it. If the ball had been in the middle of the field (it was on the right hash mark) we might have had a chance.”
Heath Davis added a 16-yard scoring run for the Wolves and Richie Hitz had a late 47-yard scoring pass to Evan Taylor.
Smoky Hill 7 0 0 0 – 7
Grandview 0 6 14 6 – 26
SH – Smith 28 pass from Felberg (Harter kick). G – Bolen 9 run (pass failed). G – Bolen 40 run (pass failed). G – Davis 16 run (Bolen run). G – Taylor 47 pass from Hitz (kick failed).
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
