It was cold last Thursday night at Randall Hess Stadium. Too cold apparently, as the Thompson Valley Eagles all but froze out the Roosevelt offense in a 41-21 blowout of the Rough Riders.
Once again the plan to stop Rough Rider star running back Xavier Ramirez was in full effect as the Eagles were very effective holding “X” to 81 yards on 18 carries, well short of Ramirez’s 135-yard average. The running back did finish the night with two rushing touchdowns.
Quarterback Bronco Hartson was forced into some heroics early in the game as he threw for 198 yards on 24 attempts and one interception. Hartson would also contribute to the run game with 11 carries for 82 yards and a touchdown.
Seniors Trevor Karabensh and Joey Brake caught the majority of Hartson’s passes, combining for 10 receptions and 152 yards. The young Roosevelt defense once again seemed to struggle in the second half after having held the Eagles to 14 points in the first two quarters. Starting the second half the Riders held the Eagles to a field goal attempt on their opening drive, which turned into a big momentum swinging touchdown pass off a field goal fake.
That play was definitely the turning point in the game as the Eagles silenced the Rough Rider crowd and completely sapped the soul out of the defense as the Riders allowed some big plays from scrimmage in the fourth quarter.
Thompson Valley would go on to outscore the Riders 27-7 in the second half to go on to the 41-21 win.
The loss dropped Roosevelt to 7-2 on the season and 2-2 in the 3A League 7 standings. The loss also dropped Roosevelt to 8th in CHSAA’s state playoff seeding index.
What that means for the Riders is they must win their last game of the season if they have any hope of hosting a playoff game. They lose and they go on the road for the duration of the playoffs. There’s even a small possibility they miss out on the playoffs all together.
Roosevelt will next face the Mountain View Mountain Lions in Loveland on Friday night. The Mountain Lions enter the contest with a 2-7 record, but that could be a bit deceiving as this team had lost some extremely close games, including a 21-14 loss to Thompson Valley just two weeks ago. They are a dangerous team with nothing to lose. Beating the Rough Riders this season would make their year despite an absence of a playoff appearance.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. In other Roosevelt sporting news: Volleyball made the playoff s for the second season in a row and will play in the 3A Region 8 this Friday at Holy Family High School in Broomfield. The Lady Riders will face the Holy Family Tigers and the Golden Demons in the round robin regional bracket. The regional winner will go on to play in the official state bracket next week.
Gymnastics wasn’t messing around at their regional meet last weekend. The Lady Riders took second place just behind 4A powerhouse Niwot to earn the right to compete at the state meet as a team for the third year in a row. Rough Rider gymnastics is starting to make a name for itself, especially on the floor, as the Riders swept the top four spots in the event. Makaylee Myer was 4th, Rylie Krieger took 3rd, Alea Piddington was 2nd and Taegan Olson took the top spot. Alea also placed 2nd in bars, 3rd in vault and 2nd all around. Along with winning the floor, Taegan also placed 8th on beam. Braelyn Bailey placed 6th on floor and 5th in vault. Paige Garguilo was 2nd in vault and Adrianna Rios was 3rd in bars.
The CHSAA 4A State Gymnastics meet will be held today (Thursday) through Saturday at Thornton High School. Tonight and Friday will begin at 3 p.m. Saturday’s finals begin at 1:30 p.m.
Cheer and Dance completely crushed it at the Boo Bash held at Roosevelt last Saturday. Dance swept the 10-team field in JV Poms and both Varsity Poms and Jazz taking first place in each. Cheer placed 2nd just behind Thompson Valley on the podium.
Cross Country phenom Rachel Wheeler placed 85th in a field of 160 girls at the CHSAA State Cross Country meet with a time of 21:07.5.
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