ARVADA — Ordinarily, teams such as Fountain-Fort Carson and Ralston Valley, which met Friday night at the North Area Athletic Complex, would be facing a scrimmage this weekend.
The season begins in earnest Thursday, but a couple of teams in Colorado’s 2008 12-game Zero Week, designed for teams that failed to schedule appropriate opponents toward the intricate postseason formula, went at it after limited practice.
Ultimately, Fountain-Fort Carson’s defense and the big-play ability of senior Devyn Harris fueled a hard-fought, 14-7 victory in Class 4A nonleague action.
Historically, both teams have been 4A factors, but neither program had played this early and admittedly faced a lot of the unknown.
“We didn’t know what to expect, but we had to set a tone,” veteran Fountain-Fort Carson coach Mitch Johnson said. “We’ve struggled in the second round of the playoffs. These guys (the Mustangs) are always in the playoffs. So we had to come up here and that was a big challenge for us.”
Up to the challenge was Harris, who has an early offer from Wyoming. The 6-foot-3, 195-pounder was quite effective in the Trojans’ veer attack with a 52-yard burst for a touchdown on the fifth play of the third quarter, then all but put it away with 6:01 remaining in the game on a 61-yarder on third-and-9.
Harris’ second score also came after the Trojans had been whistled for two major penalties and he had a key stop on fourth down from his linebacker position.
“We just wanted to play the type of defense we did last year,” Harris said.
Ralston Valley got a late score on a terrific fade pass by backup quarterback James Robinson, but failed to handle the Trojans’ front, which seemed to get stronger as the game progressed.
“You noticed that, too?” Mustangs coach Matt Loyd said. “We’ve got to work a lot harder. Guys have to fight through a little adversity there. Especially when they got up by two touchdowns, they seemed to do whatever they wanted to. But we’ll get back to work; I’m good with what we’ve got.”
Harris rolled to 131 yards, all but 7 after halftime. Backfield mate Quinton Lawson also was durable and had a 58-yarder to the 1-yard line in the first quarter, but the Trojans fumbled it away on the next play.
Fountain-Fort Carson 0 0 7 7 — 14
Ralston Valley 0 0 0 7 — 7
FFC — Harris 52 run (Wright kick). FFC — Harris 61 run (Wright kick). RV — DeWitt 7 pass from Robinson (Grenfell kick).
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
