BOULDER — The spread offense that has taken over college football has even found its way to the 8-man level in Colorado.
Longtime West Grand coach Chris Brown — with his Oregon ties — has embraced it. The Mustangs showed off their version of the spread Saturday in a 58-38 Central Division win over Justice at Christian Recht Field.
“We were able to run the ball at will and with the wind, we just didn’t throw as much as we usually do,” said Brown, who in his 35 years has coached West Grand to 11-man titles in 1996 and 1998 and is learning to appreciate the 8-man game.
“We’re loving this.”
The Mustangs (5-1 overall, 3-0 league) quickly took advantage of the Phoenix, whose coach, T.J. Cole, sat several starters for disciplinary reasons. After surrendering an early touchdown, West Grand quarterback Travis Gore took matters into his own hands — or feet.
The junior’s first four runs went for 24, 23, 44 and 51 yards, the last three resulting in touchdowns.
“I was a little surprised by what they had on the field, but our coaches told us not to pay any attention to that,” said Gore, who finished with 285 yards on 29 carries and four touchdowns. “We just had to forget about that and play the game.”
After a wacky first half that culminated with Justice star Iaian McGhee returning a kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, the defenses took over in the second half.
West Grand intercepted Phoenix quarterback Salvador Hernandez on three consecutive attempts and never let Justice gain momentum.
“We became Soroco fans today,” said Cole, whose team needs to take care of business the next two weeks and have Soroco win at West Grand next week to repeat as Central champion. “I think we will be fine. We didn’t quit, we played hard football and we just ran out of time.”
Justice (3-1, 2-1) finishes the regular season against Vail Christian and Gilpin County.
West Grand’s balanced run game also got scoring runs from Chase Hill, Luke Miller and Tim Ritschard.
West Grand 30 14 0 14 — 58
Justice 16 6 0 16 — 38
J — Lopez 67 pass from Hernandez (Lopez pass from Hernandez). WG — Gore 23 run (T. Ritschard run). WG — Gore 44 run (Miller pass from Gore). J — Lepure 42 pass from Hernandez (Lepure pass from Hernandez). WG — Gore 51 run (pass failed). WG — T. Ritchard 8 pass from Gore (Gore run). WG — Hill 4 run (Gore run). WG — Gore 46 run (run failed). J — McGhee 90 kickoff return (run failed). WG — Miller 1 run (T. Ritschard pass from Gore). WG — T. Ritschard 27 run (pass failed). J — Hernandez 7 run (McGhee run). J — Hernandez 43 run (McGhee run).
Jon E. Yunt: 303-954-1354 or jyunt@denverpost.com
