AURORA — “Unbelievable.”
That was the one word Rangeview coach Dave Gonzales could muster to explain the third quarter of Friday night’s Class 5A quarterfinal between his fourth-seeded Raiders and No. 21 Grandview.
Grandview buried Range-view 35-12 as the Wolves caused enough chaos to move on to the semifinals to face the top-seeded and defending champ Mullen next week.
“It’s unbelievable,” Gonzales said. “We had the wind taken out of our sails. We just couldn’t hit our stride.”
A big roadblock for the Raiders was Grandview senior running back Ryan Tasker, who finished with 204 yards on 22 carries with three touchdowns, including a 60-yarder in the fourth quarter.
In a relatively quiet first half, Grandview took a 13-0 lead, holding previously undefeated Rangeview scoreless in the first half for the first time this season.
But as soon as the teams met after halftime, all normalcy was lost.
Bad things can happen in threes, and so it happened for the Raiders (11-1). Rangeview’s first three-and-out drive of the half was made worse when the Wolves’ Eddie Yarbrough blocked Ben Handy’s punt in the end zone and recovered it for a touchdown. With a 21-0 lead, Grandview’s kickoff was then recovered by the Wolves’ Nate Bender.
Let the momentum swing.
Grandview (8-4) took the short field all the way to the goal line on a 19-yard run by William Hewitt, but Hewitt fumbled out of the end zone resulting in a touchback for the Raiders.
Rangeview turned the mishap into a 23-yard TD pass from Jaleel Awini to Cameron Connell to pull within 21-6. On the ensuing kickoff, the Raider’s redeemed the previous kick when Zach Zuhse forced Hewitt to fumble at midfield and Rangeview kicker Zach Taylor recovered it.
But just after the Raiders drove into the red zone, Awini fumbled inside the 5-yard line. Grandview’s Spencer Gaw-kowski returned the fumble 89 yards to the Rangeview 7.
“It was a game-changer,” said Awini, who finished with 96 yards on 23 carries and was 9-of-22 passing for 126 yards. “I thought my knee was down. I’ve never played in a third quarter like that.”
Tasker scored on a 4-yard run with 11:17 left in the game for a 28-6 lead.
“It was a roller coaster,” Tasker said. “It was up, down, but that’s what makes it exciting.”
