It’s nowhere to be found in the box score, yet field position can often be one of a football game’s most decisive factors.
Thanks to a stubborn defense and opportunistic special teams play, Standley Lake commanded the field position battle early and turned it into an insurmountable lead against Golden on Friday night in a Class 4A Mountain Plains League football matchup at the North Area Athletic Complex.
A long punt return, a dominant defensive possession and a fumbled kickoff resulted in three of Standley Lake’s first four drives starting inside Golden territory. All three times, the Gators converted for touchdowns, propelling them to a 21-0 halftime lead on the way to a 21-7 victory in the league opener for both teams.
The average length of the Gators’ three scoring drives was just 33 yards, a distinct advantage in a clash of two teams eager to get a win in their first conference game following losses the previous two weeks.
Standley Lake coach Dan Morse credited an all-around team effort for the great field position, giving the Gators (2-2 record, 1-0 in league) early momentum and fueling a very pro-Standley Lake crowd during the school’s homecoming game.
“You get field position basically because all three phases of your game are doing OK — defense is playing well, special teams are playing well,” Morse said. “Especially when we’re struggling, and (Golden) is coming off three tough losses, that was going to be crucial to kind of get an early jump, for either side. I was just glad it was us.”
Standley Lake sophomore quarterback Matt Fujinami opened the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run with 4 minutes left in the first quarter to make it 7-0. Then senior running back Felipe Vergara ran in a pair of scores on two straight possessions in the second quarter, the first from a yard out set up by a 40-yard reception by senior Mitch Ernster, and the second on a 2-yard plunge six plays after Golden (0-4, 0-1) turned it over on a kickoff return.
“We came off two tough losses against two pretty awesome teams, so it was just nice to see the kids come out and execute, and play a pretty flawless first half,” Morse said.
The Gators will look to build off Friday’s win and go 2-0 in conference back at the NAAC for a 4 p.m. game Friday against Prairie View (2-2, 0-1).
“We’re starting over now. We’re 1-0,” said Standley Lake junior linebacker Patrick McKinney, who along with senior Luke Kuhr and junior Lucas Videtich had two sacks on the night. “We’re not going to lose another game.”
While field position clearly worked in the Gators’ favor, the Demons (0-4, 0-1) weren’t as fortunate. Their first seven possessions all started in Standley Lake territory, and all seven times they came up empty, as an aggressive Gator defense limited the Demons to just 3.4 yards per carry while totaling seven sacks.
The Gator pass rush now has 20 sacks through the season’s first four games.
“We played pretty good on defense, we swarmed to the ball. We played fast, we flew around,” McKinney said. “Couldn’t really ask for much more.”
Finally, with less than two minutes to go, the Demons stopped the Gators on downs and took over at the Standley Lake 45-yard line. Three plays later senior quarterback Jordan Johnson connected with senior receiver Jordan Pretz for a 19-yard touchdown pass.
While the late score didn’t impact the game’s final result, the Demons are hoping that it, along with a defensive effort that created two turnovers and didn’t allow any second-half points, will give the team momentum heading into a very winnable game against Brighton (1-3, 0-1) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, at Trailblazer Stadium in Lakewood.
“We just have to get smarter. Our kids play hard, they just don’t always play smart,” Golden coach Mike Joseph said. “And part of it is, they don’t understand the game yet. We have some young kids who haven’t played a lot of football. We just have to play smarter, not harder. And we will.”
For the third straight game the Demons were without junior running back Paris Salas, who remained sidelined because of a knee injury. Salas’ 119 yards in the season opener against Denver South was the only 100-yard effort by a Demon running back all season, a sign of how inconsistent Golden’s offense has been.
“It’s pretty frustrating,” Golden junior Kris Summers said. “It’s getting old losing and not being able to score.”