HIGHLANDS RANCH — After several subpar seasons, the Mountain Vista football team approached 2014 with change and innovation in mind. With a new offensive system and a stifling defense, the Golden Eagles are off to a blistering 7-0 start — the best in school history.
But their first move in the offseason? New helmets.
A variation on the Oregon Ducks’ design, the Golden Eagles sport sleek black matte helmets with a shiny golden split-wing design that flows along the side.
“It was almost a sense of reinventing ourselves as a program,” Golden Eagles coach Ric Cash said. “… This is a new phase, a new stage in the Mountain Vista football program.”
Cash said he looked to the Colorado Mines for inspiration. Taking the team to Golden for a couple of weekends, he implemented the Orediggers’ speedy offense into his game plan. It complements the Golden Eagles’ use of their quickness on defense.
“It’s a ; we’re trying to run a play every 20 seconds,” Cash said. “The goal is to get to the line of scrimmage and run a play within six seconds.”
The team quickly took to the changes. Entering Week 8, Vista is ranked No. 8 in The . The Golden Eagles are averaging 26.4 points, while allowing a 5A-low 8.7 — both tops for the program this decade.
“I really feel confident in everybody’s skills on the team, so I knew we were going to do good,” senior defensive tackle Preston Troxel said about coming into the season. “But I didn’t think we were going to be this good.”
Vista will face its biggest challenge of the season against No. 6 Regis Jesuit (6-1) on Friday. Vista was crushed 56-0 last season, but this is a new team with a new mentality.
“There was a lot of selfishness. What we’ve had this year with this team … is everyone’s trying to help each other get better,” senior linebacker Luke Nelson said. “We’re playing as a team. We’re playing really well.”
Joe Nguyen: jnguyen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joenguyen
Golden Eagles take flight
A look at how many points Mountain Vista has scored and allowed since 2011:
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| Year | Record | Points | Allowed |
| 2011 | 4-6 | 18.3 | 24.8 |
| 2012 | 4-6 | 23.6 | 28.8 |
| 2013 | 3-7 | 11.0 | 28.5 |
| 2014 | 7-0 | 26.4 | 8.7 |
