The holiday season is upon us, and with that comes the end of Colorado high school football season. This season was not without its usual twists and turns as the teams in 4A jockeyed for position all season long.One exception was the Sand Creek High School Scorpions. They played their final game of the season Oct. 30 against Widefield. The Scorpions lost the game 21-14 and finished 2-8 for the year. A controversial play at the end of the game put a damper on the Scorpions season. With less than two minutes left in the game, Widefield was up 21-7. The coaches talked, and agreed to let a Widefield special needs player run the ball in for a touchdown, but a few seconds into the play a Sand Creek player ran up to the special needs player, stripped the ball from him and ran it back for a Scorpion touchdown. We can only hope the player didnít know the coachesí plan.On a better note, Vista Ridge High School led the district for most of the year, and their final game was against Falcon High School. The game held little weight for the Vista Wolves, as their good start to the season had all but guaranteed a playoff spot. For Falcon, however, a win was vital since they got off to a rocky start. The Falcons jumped out early, with a 20-6 lead in the first quarter, and they never looked back. The team blew Vista out of the water by a final score of 60-18. They won this game almost completely on the ground, as the team totaled 52 carries for 434 yards and eight touchdowns. Despite making the playoffs, the loss to Falcon may have demoralized Vista Ridge. They lost in the first round of playoffs to Windsor High School in another blowout ó 42-6.On the flip side, Falcon had momentum since the final win over Vista led them to the playoffs. Falcon entered as the No. 13 seed and faced No. 4 ranked Denver South in the first round. This game was also dominated by the running backs. Falcon quarterback Ty Murphy only attempted three passes in the game for the second straight week. The ground game worked again, as the Falcons won 28-13.In the second round, Falcon had a rematch against the Pueblo South Colts (they lost to the Colts during the regular season). The Falcons stuck to their game plan and ran the ball throughout the four quarters. Pueblo South chose to pass the ball and it backfired, as quarterback Nate Spinuzzi threw for one touchdown and three interceptions, which were all picked off by Falconís corner, Isaiah Fields. The Falcons won 38-21, which set up another fierce playoff match between Pine Creek and Falcon.Although the Pine Creek Eagles (Colorado Springs) were the No. 1 seed, a field issue sent the semi-final game to Falconís home field. The Falcons came out of the gate strong, trying to avenge their overtime loss to the Eagles in the first game of the season. The Falcons marched down the field on the opening drive and scored a touchdown to take an early 7-0 lead. But Pine Creek stifled the Falcons running attack and didnít allow them another point until fourth quarter. The Falcons were down 14-7 at the half, but during the third quarterback Ty Murphy was injured and did not return to the game. Backup quarterback Wyatt Aaberg took over and on the first play threw an interception to Jojo Domann. The sequence of plays seemed to take the air out from under the Falconsí wings. The Pine Creek Eagles took the win 34-14. They play Longmont in the championship game at Sports Authority field on Nov. 29.
