Cherry Creek rallies to beat Legend for Class 5A football title, clinching Bruins’ fifth crown in last six years

FORT COLLINS — Like a heavyweight prizefighter down halfway through the bout, Cherry Creek football reminded the state there’s only one way to beat the Bruins on the big stage: You’ve got to knock them out.

Columbine did so last year, snapping Cherry Creek’s streak of four straight titles. But Legend couldn’t deliver the finishing blow on Saturday at Canvas Stadium, where the Bruins erased a 10-point halftime deficit in a 13-10 victory over the upstart Titans.

The comeback gave Cherry Creek its fifth title in the last six years and 14th crown overall. And it padded Dave Logan’s Colorado coaching record with the head coach’s 12th state title, and his sixth with the Bruins.

“Two really good teams, a hard-fought game, and I’m just pleased we were able to hang in there and find a way to win in the second half,” said Logan. “I want to credit (head coach) Monte Thelen and his staff at Legend. Everybody talked about us being prohibitive favorites, and I thought that was just nonsense. They were a really good team.”

Cherry Creek’s defense starred to keep the Bruins in the game despite being shut out in the first half, while freshman running back Elijah Cromwell’s two rushing TDs in the second half were the difference to deny Legend one of the biggest Class 5A championship upsets in recent memory.

“Eli came in and ran with power, and protected the football, and gave us what we needed in the run game,” Logan said. “I couldn’t be more proud of him as a freshman.”

The Titans opened the game with an impressive drive, aided by a poor squib on the opening kick that set them up at the Legend 39-yard line. They proceeded to march deep into Bruins territory before settling for a 30-yard field goal by senior Carson Flowers to go ahead 3-0.

Then the Legend defense started flexing. Cherry Creek only picked up one first down over its two drives in the first quarter while not even sniffing Legend territory, and it didn’t get much better in the opening half as the Titans continued to control the game.

The Titans offense took advantage of Cherry Creek being stuck in neutral. Legend extended its lead to 10-0 midway through the second quarter when senior quarterback Nick Farley threw a 33-yard TD pass to junior Ryken Banks. Farley was drilled by multiple defenders as he threw, but a perfect lob to Banks found the running back on a corner route near the goal line.

Along the way to the Titans owning the first half, Cherry Creek was heavily penalized (seven times for 68 yards). One of those flags negated a muffed punt that the Bruins recovered in Legend territory, and another turned a batted pass in the backfield into a roughing the passer call.

“We were beating ourselves in the first half,” Cherry Creek junior quarterback Brady Vodicka said. “Penalties, missed alignments, missed assignments.”

On the possession after Farley’s TD pass, Cherry Creek’s top receiver Jeremiah Hoffman couldn’t haul in a deep pass from Vodicka. The pass hit the senior’s hands in stride, right near the goal line. But he couldn’t hang on to what likely would’ve been a touchdown, and the Bruins were stopped on fourth down the next play.

As the opening half wound to a close, the deepest Cherry Creek got into Titans territory was on the final play of the second quarter, when junior tight end Ty Goettsche caught a pass and advanced it to the Legend 47-yard line as time expired.

The frustration level on the Cherry Creek sideline was high as the Bruins jogged to the locker room, with players barking at each other coming off the error-prone start. Meanwhile, Legend’s play in the first half was best defined by the orange banner with white capital lettering that hung in front of the Titans’ student section and blared, “WHY NOT US?”

“Two years ago we were down against Valor Christian at half of the championship, and we came back and won that game,” senior edge rusher Keegan Perea said. “We had that same feeling tonight, that we needed to come out and get the momentum back. And we did.”

In the third quarter, the teams traded punts before the Bruins took advantage of a short field to finally get on the board. Cherry Creek marched 39 yards in five plays, capped off by Cromwell’s 2-yard TD run. That made it 10-6 with 5:24 left in the third after the extra point was blocked.

Then came a slew of errors that eventually led to the Bruins taking their first lead.

Cherry Creek muffed a punt deep that the Titans recovered at the Bruins’ 27. But the next play, Banks’ fumble was recovered by Ashton Shepardson, flipping the ball back to the Bruins. Cherry Creek went three-and-out with that takeaway, punted and then recovered a muffed punt by the Titans’ Payton Aukland.

That led to the Bruins taking the lead, 13-10, on Cromwell’s 9-yard TD run with 39 seconds left in the third. The score was set up by a spectacular catch from Hoffman. The wideout high-pointed the ball in double-coverage down the field with a 42-yard grab that put the Bruins in the red zone, atoning for his earlier drop.

“We needed one big play to really spark us, and that pass to (Hoffman) was it,” Vodicka said. “I have so much trust in him. We call him ‘Head Top’ for a reason. He had that big drop earlier, but he doesn’t let that stuff get to his head. I put it up there and let him do work, taking the ball off the top of the head of the defender.”

Cromwell was named the game’s most outstanding player. Cherry Creek turned to him exclusively in the second half following an ankle injury to starting running back Jayden Fox, who was initially hurt in the Bruins’ playoff opener a few weeks ago. Cromwell finished with 102 yards rushing on 17 carries.

“When I ran it in for my second touchdown, we knew we weren’t going to give the lead back,” Cromwell said.

In the fourth, both defenses stiffened up. Creek appeared primed to pull away midway through the frame when the Bruins picked up a first down in the red zone, but that was negated by an unnecessary roughness flag, and they ended up punting.

Legend, meanwhile, couldn’t find the mojo it had flowing in the opening half. The Titans punted on their first possession of the fourth quarter, then turned the ball over on downs at the Bruins’ 42-yard line with 3:53 left. Cherry Creek ran out the clock from there.

While Legend finished 12-2 and came up just short in its first championship appearance, Thelen believes this fall placed the Titans into Class 5A’s elite for “a program that is flourishing.” Saturday was Thelen’s second title game appearance, as he also led Cherokee Trail to the championship in 2012, where the Cougars lost 9-0 to Valor Christian.

“We have 55 wins in the last six years,” Thelen said. “We’re not chopped liver here. We’ve got to keep going, keep knocking on the door and maybe sometime we might get through it.”

Cherry Creek finished 13-1, winning 13 games in a row after losing their season opener to Skyridge in Utah on Aug. 30. Legend was only the second Colorado team to play Cherry Creek to single digits this year, as Pine Creek lost to the Bruins 21-14 on Sept. 27.

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