26 Highlands Ranch Herald
October 25, 2012
Sports roundup: Smith leads Huskies over Falcons Junior running back runs for school-record 448 yards By Jim Benton
jbenton@ourcoloradonews.com Douglas County junior running back Trey Smith set a school record last Friday night when he rushed for 448 yards in a 38-14 Continental League victory over Highlands Ranch. Smith carried the ball 26 times and scored four touchdowns as the Huskies (2-2, 5-3) overcame a 14-10 halftime deficit to outscore the Falcons 28-0 in the second half. For the season, Smith has run for 1,527 yards on 158 carries and is averaging 190.9 yards per game. He is the second leading Class 5A rusher in the state, trailing Thornton’s Keynan Huguley who has gained 1,636 yards. “He did a great job,” said Douglas County coach Jeff Ketron of Smith. “The offensive line obviously played a big role as did our wide receivers and other running backs. “Trey has great speed with long strides. It doesn’t look like he’s going fast but he is. He has great break away speed but I think the best thing is he has unbelivable vision and real good hips, real good balance.” MOUNTAIN VISTA WINS - Mountain Vista defeated Regis Jesuit, 28-21, and the Golden Eagles now have a chance to at least gain a tie for the Continental League title. Mountain Vista (3-1, 4-4) will play league-leading ThunderRidge Thursday night in the regular season finale at Shea Stadium. Quarterback Ryan Rubley completed 10 of 17 passes for 186 yards and one touchdown to spark Mountain Vista over the Raiders. Rocco Palumbo grabbed five of Rubley’s passes for 118 yards and caught the touchdown aerial. ROCK CANYON SECOND - Rock Canyon moved into second place in the Pioneer League after notching a 23-13 win over Legend at Shea Stadium.
Quarterback Ryan Hommel passed for 200 yards and a touchdown for the Jaguars (4-2, 6-2). Legend (3-2, 4-4) dropped into a tie for third place. Running back Eric Williams ran for 152 yards and three touchdowns for Rock Canyon and increased his season rushing total to 1,217 yards. Legend’s Nicholas Evdos scored twice and rushed for 74 yards. VALOR KEEPS ROLLING — The Eagles have now won six straight games, the last a 58-7 romp over Palmer on Oct. 19. Valor Christian (6-2), which played an independent schedule, closes out its regular season Oct. 26 at home against Rock Canyon. They are postseason eligible and will likely be one of the top four seeds when the 5A state brackets are released over the weekend. CHAPARRAL CAPTURES LEAGUE TITLE - Two-time defending Class 5A state champion Chaparral was crowned the Continental League volleyball champions with a 10-1 record. The Wolverines have won eight straight matches and one of those victories was a 3-1 triumph over Legend on Oct. 16 . The Titans finished second with a 9-2 league mark followed by Mountain Vista at 8-3 and Highlands Ranch with a 7-4 mark. Volleyball district tournaments must be completed by Oct. 27 and the regionals by Nov. 3. The state tournament is scheduled Nov. 9-10 at the Denver Coliseum. In the lastest Class 5A volleyball poll, Chaparral was No. 2, Legend No. 7, Mountain Vista No. 8 and Highlands Ranch No. 9. EIGHT ADVANCE - Eight Contintenal League soccer teams were seeded in the state playoffs which began earlier this week. League champion Heritage (9-1-1, 121-2) was seeded third. Ponderosa finished second in the league and the Mustangs (8-3-0, 9-4-2) were seeded fifth in the Class 4A tournament. Mountain Vista, Rock Canyon, High-
Rock Canyon’s Austin Beane evades Legend tackler Oct. 18 during the Jaguars 23-13 win at Shea Stadium. Photo by Courtney Kuhlen | ckuhlen@ourcoloradonews.com lands Ranch and Regis Jesuit tied for third in the final Continental standings with 7-4-0 records. The Golden Eagles (9-6-0) entered the state playoffs as a No. 16 seed. Rock Canyon (8-6-1) was seeded 19th, Highlands Ranch (8-6-1) 15th and Regis (8-6-1) 20th. ThunderRidge ( 7-7-1) drew a No. 24 seed and Legend (7-5-3) was a No. 25 seed in the state tournament bracket. CROSS COUNTRY - Mountain Vista `s boys won the Class 5A Region 5 cross country meet and the Golden Eagles girls were second. The top five full teams and all athletes who finished in the top 15 qualified for Saturday’s state cross country championships which will be held at Cheyenne Mountain’s Stampede cross country course. Chaparral finished third in the Region 5 boys meet and Rock Canyon was fourth.
Mountain Vista’s Connor Weaver (15:59) finished third in the individual boys race followed by teammates Andrew Walton (16:03) in fourth and Eric Steiner (16:06) in fifth. Other Continential League runners in the top 15 were Rock Canyon’s Lucas West (16:16) in eighth, Chaparral’s Dominic Compoz (16:19) tenth, Jacob Lucero (16:21) of Douglas County 11th, Mountain Vista’s Blake Graf (16:22) 12th, Seth Parker (16:23) of Mountain Vista 13th, the Golden Eagles Noel Wagner (16:25) 14th and Stephen Geisler (16:28) of Mountain Vista 15th. Karlee Schwartzkop of Mountain Vista was second in the girls race with a time of 18:22. Macy Kreutz (19:02) of Highlands Ranch came in seventh, Castle View’s Morgan Neher (19:05) was ninth, Solana Quistorff (19:13) of Douglas County 14th and Rock Canyon’s Morgan Cooney (19:13) ran 15th.
Chaparral returns favor, clips Falcons in rematch By Criag Harper
dwilliams@ourcoloradonews.com Rubber match, anyone? It could happen but would have to wait until the postseason. Two of the best teams in the state’s best league squared off last Thursday, and two-time defending Class 5A champion Chaparral exacted a measure of revenge for one of its two losses. The third-ranked Wolverines prevailed in the rematch with a 3-1 (2826, 25-21, 14-25, 25-18) victory at No. 8 Highlands Ranch. The operative word is “measure,’’ as the Falcons’ 3-0 win in the Regis Jam on Sept. 1 was a fleeting memory. “We came into it not really thinking about the last time because we’re concerned more about our own side,’’ said Chaparral co-captain Abby Shelton. “And we’re definitely a different team than when we played them early.’’ “That was at the beginning of the year, and we have a completely new rotation,’’ added Morgan Stanley. Indeed, Stanley was on a recruiting trip to California when the first match was played - a visit that resulted in the outside hitter committing to Sacramento State. “The big difference between the be-
ginning of the season when we played them was they didn’t have Stanley,’’ said Highlands Ranch coach Lou Krauss. “She’s worth four or five points a set, and that’s about how much we beat them by.’’ Chaparral (17-2, 10-1 Continental) had clinched a third-straight league title with a 3-1 victory over No. 6 Legend on Tuesday, but coach T.R. Ellis wanted her team to believe they had only secured a tie. “I didn’t tell the girls this game didn’t matter. I think they thought they were playing for the title,’’ she said. Despite that and the revenge factor, “We should have played a lot more inspired,’’ Ellis said. “We played a great game against Legend. Tonight was OK, but not a great match. It’s tough to play a team that’s tipping the ball like they do. They play small ball; they camp out in the middle and go tip-tip-tip. But we played during the fall break on their court and won.’’ Chaparral led for most of the first, second and fourth sets against the Falcons (14-5, 7-4), but had to survive two set points for the Falcons before taking the first set. “I actually thought we had it because we got a nice pass and I thought we were going to side out,’’ Krauss said. “Then we made a little error that was very unchar-
acteristic, and that tied it back up again. I think if we would’ve won the first set it might have been a longer match.’’ “We buckled down,’’ Ellis said. Highlands Ranch dominated the third set, but Chaparral pulled away late in the fourth behind Shelton (15 kills) and Stanley (16 kills). “They run a pretty simple offense,’’ Krauss said of Chaparral. “They don’t have to do a lot well. They just have to get it to the outside, and they’ve got two girls (Shelton and Stanley) who don’t error too much and hit the ball really hard -- that’s one thing we don’t really have. “We had the defense set up for that. We dug a lot of balls, but, still … I mean, it’s not a high-risk (offense). If I had someone to do it, I would do it, too. But we need to score points by running a whole lot of different things. And we made too many unforced errors.’’ “We have two of the best hitters in the state,’’ Ellis said. “That’s our bread and butter.’’ After losing the third set, “We thought it was important to end this one playing Chaparral volleyball going into the fourth game because next weekend we have the Cheyenne Mountain tournament,’’ Shelton said. “We’re going to save some fire going into next week.’’
Highlands Ranch’s Brittanie Tannenbaum bumps the ball Oct. 18. Photo by Courtney Kuhlen | ckuhlen@ourcoloradonews.com
Highlands Ranch got 15 kills from Rachel Saczepanski to go with 10 for Brittanie Tannenbaum and 9 for Natalie Brunstein. Shayli Siegfried had 26 digs and Kristin Conor 38 assists for the Falcons.
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