LAKEWOOD — When the reigning power rolls into town, the atmosphere is heightened, the anticipation grows and the opportunity is one that doesn’t come around that often.
So when Pine Creek, which has owned Class 4A the past two seasons and is top-ranked in the Associated Press Class 4A media poll, marched into Jefferson County Stadium to take on No. 3 Dakota Ridge in The Denver Post game of the week, all signs pointed to a probable thriller, right?
Wrong.
Pine Creek erupted for a 31-point second quarter in blasting Dakota Ridge 44-7 in 4A nonleague and probably gave a few in the sparse Thursday night crowd the chance to make it home to watch the Broncos.
Pine Creek has won 28 consecutive games (3-0 in 2015). Dakota Ridge is 2-1.
“They’re better than that,” coach Todd Miller said of the Littleton-based Eagles. “We didn’t anticipate this at all.”
The 4A show that is Pine Creek has turned explosive, disruptive and complete, and had a running clock 3 minutes into the second half.
After taking a 7-0 lead on JoJo Domann’s 4-yard run in the first quarter, Pine Creek simply binged, again led by Domann, who is bound for Nebraska and has a fitting Twitter handle (@TheDomannater). He added a field goal, made an acrobatic catch for a score on a pass from younger brother Brock, then added a 44-yard run for another score.
Defensively, the Pine Creek front harassed Dakota Ridge quarterback Adam Clary all game and top running back Jeremy Lujan, bothered by an ankle injury, had nowhere to go and was removed early.
“We thought we were going to have to grind it out, but if we execute the way we know we can execute … who knows what can happen.” JoJo Domann said.
Dakota Ridge does.
“They’re a great football team,” coach Ron Woitalewicz said.
Pine Creek 7 3 16 0—44 Dakota Ridge 0 0 0 7—7
PC — J. Domann 4 run (J. Domann kick). PC — FG J. Domann 37. PC — Weiland 18 pass from B. Domann (J. Domann kick). PC — Toliver 26 pass from B. Domann (J. Domann kick). PC — Toliver 32 run (J. Domann kick). PC — J. Domann 49 pass from B. Domann (Brungardt kick). PC — J. Domann 44 run (kick blocked). DR — McEwen 2 run (Ivy kick).
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin@denverpost.com or
