No. 1 Dakota Ridge dominates Heritage, heads to 4A championship
The tone was set early and definitely four plays yards minute and seconds off the clock Dakota Ridge quarterback Kellen Behrendsen threaded an -yard pass to receiver Trent Moench Then Landon Kalsbeck gliding through huge holes ran for yards yards and yards Touchdown Dakota Ridge Heritage Comment made The final in the Class A semifinal Saturday afternoon at Jeffco Stadium Dakota Ridge Heritage The battle wasn t nearly that close The Eagles impressive mastery gave them wins for the first time in school history and sent them to the A championship meeting for the first time since No Dakota Ridge - will play No Palmer Ridge - next Saturday at Canvas Stadium on the Colorado State campus in Fort Collins Palmer Ridge beat No Montrose - on Saturday on the Western Slope All the credit to our O-line they opened the way for all of us and I m so thankful for those guys revealed Kalsbeck the senior running back and linebacker who s headed to Washington State I am so proud of this club and the brotherhood we have formed I ve been playing with a lot of these guys since the first grade You re seeing that this season Kalsbeck rushed for yards and three touchdowns on just carries His -yard run put the Eagles ahead - in the first quarter and his -yard bull rush made it - at the end of the first half Complementing the Kalsbeck show was a gorgeous -yard scoring pass from Behrendsen to Coby Stewart down the sideline Behrendsen a senior and the son of head coach Jeremiah Behrendsen threw for yards completing of passes I think our guys are peaking at the right time Jeremiah Behrendsen disclosed We have been taking care of the ball on offense really well And nowadays Tackling the guys that Heritage has Like we did Wow our guys tackled really well Heritage s - -pound senior running back Mo Thenell rushed for rushing yards and three scores vs Durango in last week s quarterfinals but Dakota Ridge limited him to yards on carries Heritage had two chances to get back into the tournament Late in the second quarter senior quarterback Jamison Seese engineered an impressive drive highlighted by his -yard scramble But on a fourth-and-six play at Dakota s Ridge s his pass was batted down by senior Brady Palladino Related Articles Limon pads Colorado record with rd state championship and results from Saturday s high school football playoffs Cherry Creek overcomes gaffes rallies to beat Valor Christian as Bruins advance to th straight title event How Limon Colorado s football titles leader built one of America s preeminent small-town dynasties Cherry Creek-Valor Christian putting it all on offensive lines in Class A semifinals Scouting the Colorado high school football semifinals in Class A A and A Heritage forced Dakota Ridge to punt and pieced together another impressive drive But this time Seese was gang-tackled losing a yard on fourth-and-goal at the Dakota Ridge We played a great football unit but our D-coordinators gave us a great plan and we just came out and executed that plan Palladino noted As for his TD-negating play Palladino noted Their guy just cut to the inside I jumped in and swatted it I made a play Jeremiah Behrendsen commented that Palladino and senior Blake Bishop were all over the field and added that senior defensive lineman Marcus Weston was a -pound force on Saturday Marcus has played the best football of his high school career in the last three weeks the coach revealed Related Articles Limon pads Colorado record with rd state championship and results from Saturday s high school football playoffs Cherry Creek overcomes gaffes rallies to beat Valor Christian as Bruins advance to th straight title tournament How Limon Colorado s football titles leader built one of America s preeminent small-town dynasties Cherry Creek-Valor Christian putting it all on offensive lines in Class A semifinals Scouting the Colorado high school football semifinals in Class A A and A The Eagles were limited to a -yard field goal by junior Aydan Smith in the second half but they still controlled the battle Senior Diego Coria spelling Kalsbeck for much of the second half rushed for yards on carries Heritage which finished its season - ultimately got on the scoreboard early in the fourth quarter on a -yard pass from Seese to junior running back Cash Rubenzer who sneaked into the corner of the end zone Heritage scored again with seconds left in the battle on a -yard pass from Seese to senior tight end Hudson Cass After a series of late-season injuries Dakota Ridge was nearly back to full strength Saturday and was fortified by the return of senior safety Jack Offerdahl from a knee injury However the Eagles suffered two key injuries during Saturday s meeting Senior offensive lineman Josiah Sisneros went down with a leg injury late in the second half and senior Lorenzo Nencioni dislocated his ankle late in the fourth quarter That s part of the meeting we all know but it s still awful for those kids Jeremiah Behrendsen declared But we have other kids we have depth and we ll adjust Want more sports news Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver s teams
