With two weeks left in the regular season, last Friday night’s game between Westminster and Rangeview turned into the championship game for the East Metro Athletic Conference title.
A victory would have put the Wolves in control of winning the league and the automatic berth in the playoffs. On the other hand, a loss would give the title to Rangeview and leave Westminster watching the wild-card point standings for the next two weeks.
Unfortunately it was the latter for the Wolves, losing 34-22 despite getting a combined 233 yards rushing from Patrick Wilson and Augustine Sanchez.
After his team was dominated the week before to Gateway, a game that Westminster coach Kerry Denison said his team made a lot of mistakes in, this week Denison reminded the Wolves that this wasn’t just any ordinary game.
“This is for the championship and you’ve got to learn to have heart,” Denison said. “These kids got down quick and they battled back. I told them not to hang your head, we’ve come a long ways in a year and a half and I’m proud of them. They kept competing till the end.”
If there was one play that could be pointed to as the game-breaker, it came early in the fourth quarter.
With Westminster trailing 28-22, Rangeview (6-2, 6-0 EMAC) had just missed a 25-yard field goal giving the Wolves (5-3, 4-2) the ball at the 20. On the first play, Wilson got the handoff and after busting through the line it appeared he was off to the races. However, a Rangeview defender poked the ball out at the 45-yard line and Trevon Nubine fell on it for the Raiders.
“It was just like every other trap,” Wilson said. “I just had a huge hole and he got me from behind, hit the ball out from behind. I had the ball at the end of the play but the refs didn’t call it for us.”
After having his six-game streak of rushing for more than 100 yards snapped last week, Wilson racked up 139 yards on 17 carries and scored twice.
Seven plays later Rangeview’s Armon Brown scored his third touchdown of the night on a two-yard run, making the score 34-22.
“That’s a tough one,” Denison said. “When Patrick is running out in the open you think he’s going to break it and the guy pokes it from behind. He’s got to learn to secure it because there’s always going to be guys chasing him.”
The Wolves’ defense didn’t have an answer to slowing down Rangeview’s combination of Brown and Khalil Sellers. Brown had over 100 yards at halftime and finished with 222 yards and three scores while Sellers racked up 128 yards in the second half, scoring once.
“Our linemen were getting blown off the line a couple of times but sometimes they held together,” Wilson said. “Our linebackers need to fill those holes more.”
Westminster closes out the regular season against Aurora Central Saturday afternoon.
“We are still going to play just as hard, no matter where we end up,” said Sanchez, who finished with 84 yards rushing on nine carries. “We are going to play as hard as we can so we can prove to people that we can play this game.”