For Cherry Creek, Friday night’s rematch against East was about improving as much as it was about advancing in Colorado’s Class 5A playoffs.
In Week 2, the Bruins scored five touchdowns to the Angels’ four.
On Friday, Cherry Creek ripped East 42-20 at All-City Stadium in the preliminaries.
It appeared the Bruins showed more growth.
“We had the close game (earlier), but we wanted to see who got better since Week 2,” Bruins sophomore quarterback Hunter Burton said.
Cherry Creek (7-3) realizes it’s necessary — it will get to do it all over again in Round 2 against two-time defending 5A champion Mullen, on a 29-game winning streak and the team that whipped the Bruins 48-0 in Week 4. They’ll play Friday (7 p.m.) at the Stutler Bowl.
“We’ve improved, and we’re really happy with that and where we’re at,” Bruins coach Mike Brookhart said. “I thought our kids really stepped up and played well on both sides of the ball.”
And it was immediate — on the first play from scrimmage, Burton faked a handoff, then went 80 yards untouched for a touchdown. After East took possession and made a first down, it punted to Darryl McNeil, who also ran 80 yards for a touchdown.
Just like that, it was 13-0 with 9:37 to play in the first quarter.
The Bruins made it 35-7 by halftime as Taylor Wooten ran for a touchdown, Bruce McCoy caught a short pass from Burton, and Cameron Goldberg banged through a 34-yard field goal.
While the Angels (6-4) made some noise in the fourth quarter — they climbed within 35-20 by returning a fumble by the Bruins’ backup quarterback for a touchdown with 5:49 remaining — they weren’t nearly loud enough.
“We could have picked it up in the second half. Most of it was on me, I’ll take the leadership for that,” Burton said.
But it was enough for several Angels followers to exit by halftime as if they were at a University of Colorado game.
Cherry Creek had 388 yards of offense, 250 by halftime. Wooten ran for 143 yards and two touchdowns, Burton had 129 and a score and McNeil sealed it with a 52-yarder in the final minutes.
East, which at one point had to go to its fourth-string running back because of injuries, had few answers. Coach Ron McFarland, the affable veteran who took over the program just before the start of the season on an interim basis, then had the tag removed by city officials, said his team’s season “was all gravy. . . . We were kind of crippled there with the injuries. Oh, well, there’s always next year.”
Meanwhile, Brookhart and the Bruins feel good about their shot at Mullen.
“You have to play everybody sometime, so we look at it as a really good challenge,” he said.
Cherry Creek 19 16 0 7 — 42
East 7 0 6 7 — 20
CC — Burton 80 run (Goldberg kick). CC — McNeil 80 punt return (kick failed). CC — Wooten 7 run (run failed). E — I. Hendrix 2 run (McKenzie kick). CC — McCoy 10 pass from Burton (kick blocked). CC — FG Goldberg 34. CC — Wooten 18 run (Goldberg kick). E — Holden 13 pass from I. Hendrix (kick blocked). E — Bledsoe 43 fumble return (McKenzie kick). CC — McNeil 52 punt return Goldberg kick).
