PARKER — Because no team is perfect, sooner or later this day was coming for ThunderRidge.
But the way it went down made it sting so much more.
Ponderosa played streak-buster Friday night at Burt.com Stadium. When the final kneel-down was taken, the Mustangs danced off the field with a crafty and hard-fought 19-9 victory over No. 5 ThunderRidge, which not only was unbeaten this season but had not lost a regular-season football game since moving up to Class 5A last year — a span of 13 games.
“It’s a big win for us to beat ThunderRidge, a team with such great tradition over there,” Mustangs coach Randy Huff said. “We’re proud of it. The kids prepared really well this week and they played hard. They played their tails off here. There’s things the offense was forced to do but came through in the end.”
And therein lies the story.
Ponderosa (4-1) beat the Grizzlies with their own formula for success. The Mustangs start Thomas Thornton at quarterback, known a little more for a strong arm than creating plays with his feet. ThunderRidge coach Joe Johnson knew it. His team was prepared to get after the passer.
And for a half, ThunderRidge (4-1) did just that. Ponderosa needed a trick pass play to put up its first touchdown, a 55-yard toss from running back Michael Segura to Cameron Barros with 1:20 left in the second quarter to pull within 7-6 at the half.
Then, Ponderosa coaches changed the program.
In the second half, the Mustangs came out running the option. It worked to near perfection. Thornton could not be stopped on Ponderosa’s first drive of the second half, running for 54 yards, including a 23-yard TD run that gave the Mustangs a 12-7 lead.
“You had the sophomore passing quarterback just running the option all of a sudden,” Huff said. “I thought we might catch Joe off guard with that a little bit.”
Boy, did they. Johnson could not believe his team, which runs the option, had such a hard time stopping it.
“I was stunned they could run option against us,” Johnson said. “We do it a lot. We practice against it a lot. I just couldn’t believe we couldn’t stop the option and just straight tosses out to the side.”
Still, the Grizzlies were down just five going into the fourth quarter. Turnovers, however, damaged their comeback hopes. ThunderRidge put the ball on the ground twice, and after the second fumble Ponderosa put the game away.
The Mustangs punched the ball in the end zone, covering 42 yards in seven plays. Thornton ran for 15 yards and passed for 16 more on the drive. His 1-yard quarterback sneak widened the lead to 10, which proved to be more than enough against a ThunderRidge offense that struggled to move the ball most of the night.
“I was a little nervous coming into that drive because I knew it was a big moment in the game,” Thornton said. “This was a huge game for us. We were confident coming in here. We knew that ThunderRidge is a great team, and winning this on our homecoming night was really special.”
Chris Dempsey: 303-954-1279 or cdempsey@denverpost.com
