LAKEWOOD — While singing and dancing in the rain is generally accepted, dancing in the snow is frowned upon by most football coaches.
Kyle Mews pulled it off Friday night. The Wheat Ridge running back was sometimes the only guy with great traction at a snowy Jefferson County Stadium, as he picked his way for 186 yards and a touchdown to help the Class 4A defending state champions drop Rock Canyon 27-6 to advance to the state quarterfinals.
“I like to cut a lot,” Mews said. “Everybody likes to give their own advice on running styles, but I like to keep my own head in the game. . . . I felt good on the snow. I guess I got lucky.”
Mews’ first carry went for 68 yards and he seldom looked back from there. Mews scored on a 24-yard run, and quarterback Charlie Land ran and threw for a touchdown to Austin Livingston, who also scored on a 1-yard plunge in the second quarter.
The seventh-seeded Farmers (10-1) plowed with their signature running game, passed efficiently and put the clamps on the 10th-seeded Jaguars’ vaunted passing game for the second year in a row.
“They just throw the heck out of it,” Farmers coach Reid Kahl said. “The conditions tonight favored us a bit. We played a lot of man-under with help over the top, so we were able to be aggressive.”
Rock Canyon (8-3), which was eliminated at this stage last year 59-27 by the Farmers, saw its early rhythm broken up by three first-half turnovers, which the Farmers converted into 14 points. Quarterback Drew Sandlin was picked off three times, twice inside the Wheat Ridge 6.
“He felt a little pressure that wasn’t there,” Jaguars coach Tom Lynch said.
Sandlin threw for 123 yards and Martin Castro rushed for 143 yards for the Jaguars.
The Farmers will find out today if they play second-seeded Greeley West or No. 15 Pueblo West. A victory by Greeley West would set up a rematch of last year’s state final won by the Farmers on essentially the last play on a run by 2008 4A player of the year Parker Orms, now at Colorado.
Mews isn’t an Orms, who had 457 all-purpose yards against the Jaguars last year, but he was brutally effective running behind Wheat Ridge’s physical line.
“I wanted the make sure the team knew I was here to play for them,” Mews said of his hot start in the first quarter.
Land threw for 71 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown to Livingston.
