Cherry Creek football’s grueling out-of-state schedule primed Bruins for physical showdown against Legend in Class 5A title

FORT COLLINS — When putting together this year’s schedule, Cherry Creek had a problem.

No other top Class 5A football program besides Regis Jesuit and Pine Creek wanted to, or could, face the Bruins in non-conference play. So Cherry Creek was forced to schedule three out-of-state bouts in Utah, Nebraska and Texas in order to ensure the Bruins had enough games.

Those road trips molded Cherry Creek for its seventh straight Class 5A title appearance on Saturday, where the Bruins are a heavy favorite against Legend at Canvas Stadium.

“We learned a lot about our team (from those games),” Cherry Creek head coach Dave Logan said. “I would not want to play three out-of-state games every year. That’s two too many. But we tried to treat them as business trips, flying in the day of the game.”

Cherry Creek opened the season with a 24-14 loss against Skyridge in Utah on Aug. 30. Since the defeat to Skyridge, which had played in consecutive Utah Class 6A title games, the Bruins ripped off 12 straight wins. All but one were by double-digits, and Logan said the season’s early turning point came at halftime in Utah.

“(Skyridge) had played two games previously and it was our first game,” Logan said. “What I learned was, there’s a big difference between Week 3 and Week 1. But what I was proud about was, even though we didn’t win the game, we were down 17-0. We looked like we didn’t have a clue what we were doing staff-wise, player-wise. We played very poor football in the first half.

“But to the team’s credit, we battled back and it was 17-14 with six minutes to go and we had the ball. We put ourselves in a position to win.”

Cherry Creek then proceeded to beat Nebraska stalwart Millard North the next week in Omaha, followed by a decisive 51-39 victory over Texas Class 5A powerhouse Highland Park on Sept. 20. The rare home defeat for the Scots, and their lone loss this year, foreshadowed the team that Cherry Creek would be when playing back in the Centennial State.

“The Highland Park game was big in terms of the magnitude of playing a great team in the state of Texas,” Logan said. “It was 90-plus degrees, very humid, and I was so proud of our guys for the effort to execute against a team like that.”

The Bruins’ final hurdle to their fifth title in the last six years is Legend, which is making its first championship appearance. Coach Monte Thelen and the Titans (12-1) “know we have a major challenge in facing Cherry Creek.”

“I can’t even remember my passwords for seven consecutive years, and they’re in the finals for seven years in a row,” Thelen said. “It speaks volumes.”

Both teams have star running backs. Cherry Creek is led by junior Jayden Fox, while Legend features senior Jaden Lawrence, a Wyoming commit who is the program’s all-time leading rusher.

As Logan explained, the Bruins’ out-of-state gauntlet earlier this season prepared them for Legend’s size and physicality.

“In terms of size, this will be as physically good-looking of a team that we’ve played this year, including the team in Texas, and they were a good-looking bunch,” Logan said. “When I see them on tape, this group plays like our group. Tough-minded, physical. So if you like that kind of football, you’re in store for a really good game.”

Blue-collar Red Hawks. Second-seeded Montrose brings a 13-0 record and a bulldozing ground attack into Saturday’s 4A championship game against No. 5 Broomfield (12-1). And the Red Hawks will be packing something else when they make the six-hour journey from the Western Slope to the Front Range in pursuit of their first state football title since 1950.

“We are in a whole other world (in Montrose), and I think that’s an advantage for us in some ways because teams don’t really get a chance to really know who we are and what we do, and we just show up and they’re like, ‘Whoa!’,” coach Brett Mertens said Tuesday at the CHSAA football championship media day. “We are a blue-collar town, and we have kids who work very hard. They’re very tough kids.”

Montrose’s offensive is definitely old-school.

“We run a wing-T, triple-option-schemed offense,” he said. “We throw the ball when necessary. It’s just kind of a blue-collar deal. Defensively, we just like to fly around and make plays.

“At the end of the day, it’s just a bunch of kids that like to go play football and play as hard as they can. That’s kind of how our town is, too, and we try to embrace that.”

Broomfield’s “Gladiators.” Broomfield coach Robert O’Brien is an intense coach who infuses his intensity into his players. That was apparent at Tuesday’s media day.

“We are going to bring that thumbs-down mentality to Fort Collins and make sure everybody understands what we bring to the table,” he said.

When asked about the Eagles’ “thumbs-down” mantra, O’Brien referred to a 2000 Academy Award-winning movie, or perhaps its current sequel.

“Have you seen ‘Gladiator’?” he asked. “No mercy, that’s what we need.”

Thompson Valley’s rise. Thompson Valley head coach Jamie Steele has quickly built the Eagles into a contender in just his second year on the job.

After going 10-3 last season and falling to eventual champion Holy Family in the semifinals, Thompson Valley is 13-0 this fall and back in the title game for the first time in 35 years.

As Steele tells it, the Eagles got to Canvas Stadium behind a staff filled with guys who used to coach at rival Loveland. Steele himself was Loveland’s freshman coach from 1996-2013 and also coached at Resurrection Christian, Northridge and Mountain View before finally getting a head job at Thompson Valley.

“When I was at Loveland, Thompson Valley was always my cross-town rival,” Steele said. “But now I’m on the other side, and I’ve got the kids to believe in this.

“When I got hired on at Thompson Valley two years ago, one of the first questions from the booster club was, ‘Do you have your staff in place?’ I told them it was going to be some Loveland High coaches, and they all about dropped their chins to the ground, like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I just told them to trust me and that I was going to have some coaches come here and we were going to change what was done at Thompson Valley.”

The Eagles are led by senior running backs Joseph Urrutia and Wes Bebo, as well as defensive standouts in junior linebacker Landry Suarez, senior lineman Seth Kastl and senior linebacker Colton James.

2024 State Title Teams Championship History

Class 5A

Time: 6 p.m.

Cherry Creek: Seeking 14th title, first since 2022

Legend: Seeking first title in first title game appearance

Class 4A

Time: 2 p.m.

Broomfield: Seeking 6th title, first since 2022

Montrose: Seeking second title, first since 1950, in eighth title game appearance and first since 2013

Class 3A

Time: 10 a.m.

Thompson Valley: Seeking first title, second title game appearance and first since 1989

Mead: Seeking second title, first since 1949, in third title game appearance (lost in 2021)

* All games Saturday at Canvas Stadium