Benton Gray slouched in Pine Creek’s locker room last year after a playoff loss to Valor Christian, his head in his hands, his shoulders drooping, his eyes nearly filled with tears.
The defensive end had been burned like never before. And his once-relentless defense had been battered.
“You get that chip on your shoulder,” Gray said, “and you want to do everything possible to change that. . . . You want to better yourself, make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
His long-awaited chance at redemption comes Saturday in the Class 4A championship game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High, where third-seeded Pine Creek puts its stout defense against top-seeded Valor Christian, which is rolling with an almost-unstoppable offense.
The numbers in a battle of two 13-0 Eagles teams make your head spin.
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Pine Creek is allowing 5.7 points, having held all but two opponents under 10 points, with shutouts in the playoffs against No. 14 Rock Canyon, No. 11 Greeley West and No. 2 Monarch. Valor Christian is averaging 43.7 points, having eclipsed 40 points 10 times, including playoff victories over No. 16 Pueblo West, No. 9 Wheat Ridge and No. 4 Castle View.
Obviously, something has to give. Either Highlands Ranch-based Valor Christian will continue its streak of dominance, with its 24th consecutive win and its third consecutive state title — the 2009 crown came at 3A, with a 14-0 record. Or Pine Creek will break through for its first state title — a fitting reward for a senior class that’s 46-4, with one regular-season defeat.
“It really puts your back against the wall,” said Gray, who has 11 of the Class 4A-best 40 sacks by Pine Creek, 59 tackles, three fumble recoveries and an interception. “You’ve got two decisions — you can run or fight. We’re going to go out guns blazing.”
Only 5A Regis Jesuit — in a 20-16 setback in Week 2 — has held Valor Christian to fewer than five touchdowns. Valor Christian averages 343.5 yards behind remarkable balance, with Wes Tabor and Cody Thibault combining to throw for 2,069 yards and 22 touchdowns and Christian McCaffrey and Cameron Gray running for 1,211 yards and 30 scores.
Against Regis, though, Valor Christian was “exposed a little bit, and we saw some of the weaknesses that they have,” said Riley Whitworth, a senior linebacker who has 74 tackles, four sacks and two of his team’s 14 interceptions. “If teams start getting up on them and play them physical, I don’t think it will be the crazy amount of points that they always have.”
Defensive coordinator Matt Wibbels has stressed “a lot of repetition, and we study a lot of plays and a lot of formations,” said Nick Jackson, a senior safety with 65 tackles, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. He added: “We have a lot of confidence. We know we’ve got to step up and hold their offense down.”
“There’s a ton of pride,” said Brandon Tribble, a senior defensive tackle with 65 tackles, eight sacks and four of 16 fumble recoveries.
As a unit, “we are a little bit faster than we were last year,” Tribble said, noting that “we help each other out a lot, opening holes for each other.”
What about Valor Christian? “If they don’t score,” he said, “they don’t win.”
Gray insists that “just not wrapping up, missed tackles, missed assignments” were to blame in the 41-16 throttling Valor Christian laid on Pine Creek in the 2010 quarterfinals. The solution, he said, is “assignment football, doing our jobs, listening to the coaches.”
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