No. 3 Wheat Ridge (11-1) at No. 7 Dakota Ridge (9-3)
Jeffco Stadium, Saturday, 1 p.m.
Each team needed a late touchdown from its tight end to escape the quarterfinals and solidify a rematch of an Oct. 15 contest. In that game, Wheat Ridge got two late fourth-quarter touchdowns to triumph 28-14. . . . Wheat Ridge tight end Andy Field’s heroics guided the Farmers to a 21-17 win over Ponderosa, while Dakota Ridge tight end Keaton Greenstreet caught a late fourth-and-goal TD to push the Eagles past Longmont 31-28. . . .Deja vu continues to be the theme for Dakota Ridge, which traveled this precise playoff road in 2008. In each season, the Eagles defeated Pueblo South in the first round, Longmont in the quarters and then faced Wheat Ridge in the semis. They lost to the eventual champion Farmers 21-16 in ’08. . . . Dakota Ridge’s Derek Vander Velde is 4A’s premier receiver with 1,007 yards (19.8 per catch) and 12 touchdowns. He torched Longmont for 209 yards and two TDs. . . . Wheat Ridge quarterback Nick Ossello and tailback Nick Swanson each have surpassed the 1,000-yard plateau on the ground.
No. 5 Valor Christian (9-3) at No. 1 Broomfield (11-1)
Elizabeth Kennedy Stadium, Saturday, 1:30 p.m.
After opening the season exclusively against 5A opponents, Valor Christian had a 1-3 mark. Since then, Valor not only has won eight straight but has done so exuberantly. Only two teams have scored more than 10 during the streak — including Pine Creek in Valor’s 41-16 win in the quarterfinals — and Valor has outscored foes a composite 343-45 during the stretch. . . . Colorado-bound quarterback Brock Berglund has tossed 17 touchdowns while also racking up 823 rushing yards. . . . Broomfield also is unbeaten within the classification — its loss was to 5A Legacy — and continues to rely on the standout running of Dan Geubelle. The senior is 167 yards shy of the 2,000 mark and has rushed for 30 touchdowns. . . . Broomfield showed a few chinks in the armor when it blew a 27-7 lead against Loveland in the quarterfinals before coming back to win 33-28 on Geubelle’s third touchdown run. . . . This will be the schools’ initial meeting on the gridiron.
