LAKEWOOD — Dakota Ridge was playing for a lot Thursday night in its Plains League showdown against Heritage: A chance to separate themselves at the top of the conference standings with Chatfield; a chance to stretch the team’s winning streak to four games; and, most importantly, Dakota Ridge took the field with orange socks to honor a teammate, sophomore Christian Lyons, in his fight against leukemia.
And make no mistake, the home Eagles (5-3, 3-0) came out playing like they were well aware of everything at stake against the visiting Eagles (5-3, 2-1), as Dakota Ridge jumped out to a 14-0 lead after one quarter and never looked back en route to a 24-14 victory over No. 6 Heritage.
“I told the kids before the game that when they’re out there and they think they’re tired, they think they’re sore and they’re looking for motivation, Christian is it,” Dakota Ridge coach Ron Woitalewicz said. “He’s basically in the hospital fighting for his life, and he’s doing good, but we knew we couldn’t feel tired or sore tonight because we were thinking about Christian. That definitely helped motivate us, because physically we came out and played as tough as we’ve played all year.”
Junior Bryan Barger rumbled for a 3-yard score on the first drive of the game to give Dakota Ridge the early 7-0 lead, and on the team’s next drive junior quarterback Drew Dominic hucked a 78-yard touchdown pass to junior Kyle Scofield.
It was exactly the sort of focused start Woitalewicz was looking for, especially considering Dakota Ridge could have very well looked past Heritage in anticipation of its battle against No. 2 Chatfield next week.
“Our start definitely got us in the flow of the game,” Woitalewicz said. “Our opening drive, we moved the ball down the field, set the tempo we wanted to set and took control of the game early.”
The two teams then traded scores in the second quarter, with Heritage junior Tyler Zoesch’s 23-yard touchdown catch and Dakota Ridge senior Harper Sillman’s subsequent 25-yard field goal making it a 17-7 ballgame.
But with under a minute to play in the first half, Dakota Ridge senior Keenan Brown — a highly-touted transfer from Denver South who came into the game leading the team in receiving — took a 51-yard pass to the house, making several Heritage players miss and permanently regaining the momentum for Dakota Ridge along the way.
“That play gave us a lot of energy going into the second half,” Brown said. “We know we’re a good team, and it’s situations like that where we have to capitalize on the athletes we have and Dominic’s ability to throw the football.”
Considering Dakota Ridge is ranked 26th in the latest 4A RPI, the Eagles are now set up for a must-win game next Friday against Chatfield, when the team will look to put itself in position to secure the conference crown and thus an automatic playoff bid.
And for a team that has won at least eight games in each of the previous three seasons —including a 9-2 campaign in 2015 in which Dakota Ridge was upset in the first round of the playoffs — Woitalewicz stressed his guys have plenty of film to watch and adjustments to make ahead of the showdown against Chatfield.
“We’ve got to work on tackling, and we’re going to have to get acclimated to Chatfield’s fast-paced offense,” Woitalewicz said. “But if our kids continue to play physical, that’s really going to help us against them.”
Meanwhile, Heritage closes its regular season with home matchups against Golden (Oct. 27) and Chatfield (Nov. 4), and coach Tyler Knoblock noted his team will learn from this loss as they keep their eye on the postseason. Heritage is currently ranked 10th in the 4A RPI.
“There’s still a lot of football out in front of us — this league can get tricky at the end, and Chatfield’s obviously going to be a monster with the way they’re playing right now,” Knoblock said. “If they can beat Dakota Ridge, and we beat them, then it’s back to a three-way tie for the league and we’d go to tiebreakers.”
SCORING BY QUARTER
HHS 0 14 0 0
DRHS 14 10 0 0
SCORING SUMMARY
1Q 7:19: Bryan Barger 3-yard run, Dakota Ridge 7 Heritage 0
1Q 3:31: Drew Dominic 78-yard pass to Kyle Scofield, Dakota Ridge 14 Heritage 0
2Q 8:20: Chase Hansen 23-yard pass to Tyler Zoesch, Dakota Ridge 14 Heritage 7
2Q 4:10: Harper Sillman 25-yard field goal, Dakota Ridge 17 Heritage 7
2Q 1:40: Chase Hansen 1-yard run, Dakota Ridge 17 Heritage 14
2Q 0:52: Drew Dominic 51-yard pass to Keenan Brown, Dakota Ridge 24 Heritage 14
