By halftime of Friday’s Columbine-Arvada West game at Jeffco Stadium, the only semblance of drama remaining was whether Rebels quarterback Danny Spond would be named Homecoming King.
He wasn’t — which was about the only thing that didn’t go his way in a surprisingly easy 34-10 win.
“That’s just the way it goes sometimes, I guess,” Spond said afterwards. “That’s OK; the win was good enough.”
If it seemed like the University of Colorado-bound senior was everywhere — including escorting his Homecoming Queen candidate across the field at halftime — it was because he was. In an evening that ended early because of the lopsided nature of the game, Spond threw for two touchdowns and ran for another. Playing safety on defense, he also intercepted a pass that led to a score. That was one of three interceptions thrown by Arvada West quarterback Gavin Glanz.
The Wildcats entered the game undefeated and one of the top-ranked teams in Class 5A, but they got an early inkling that it wasn’t going to be their night — on the second play of the game, Glanz was picked off by Columbine linebacker Kevin Osborne, who returned the interception 24 yards for a touchdown.
“I was expecting them to come out harder and hit us harder, but we were ready to go,” Osborne said. “It was intense out there, but ours was higher.”
According to Columbine coach Andy Lowry, over the past few seasons the Rebels have primarily been an offense-oriented team. That hasn’t been the case so much this year.
“We still have lots of improvement to do. Hopefully we can keep building our confidence up week after week,” he said. “We’re not very good up front right now, but we will be by the end of the year . . . we just need confidence — and you get that from games like this.”
Of course, it was just last week that the Rebels suffered something of a crisis of confidence, losing 16-13 to Chatfield. In the aftermath and entering practice for the game against Arvada West, Spond said he and his teammates asked themselves, “How good do we really want to be?”
For now, it would appear that the answer would be “pretty good,” but that’s the thing about confidence — it can often be a week-to-week proposition.
“We’re just going to take it a game at a time,” Spond said. “And wherever that takes us, that’s where we’ll be.”
Anthony Cotton: 303-954-1292 or acotton@denverpost.com
