GREENWOOD VILLAGE — Cherry Creek survived.
The Bruins overcame four turnovers, several other costly miscues and Valor Christian’s best effort on Saturday at the Stutler Bowl. Cherry Creek rallied to beat Valor Christian, 21-13, to advance to its eighth straight title game.
Cherry Creek, the defending champion that has won five of the last six Class 5A crowns, couldn’t get out of its own way at times in Saturday’s semifinal. Meanwhile, Valor Christian went toe-to-toe with the Bruins in the trenches, matching and often surpassing the physicality of the Bruins’ acclaimed front on both sides of the ball.
But in a game where Valor Christian needed a knockout blow to pull off the upset, the Eagles failed to come up with one.
The visitors led at halftime and early in fourth quarter, but couldn’t hang on as Cherry Creek owned the final 10 minutes of play. Valor Christian’s attempt to tie the game in the waning seconds was stifled as the Bruins forced a strip-sack on the last play of the game from the Cherry Creek 5-yard line.
With the win, the Bruins — who won last year’s semifinal at home against Valor Christian in a 42-17 blowout — improved to 7-6 in the all-time series between the Colorado heavyweights. Cherry Creek, now 13-0, faces the winner of Ralston Valley and Mountain Vista in next week’s title game at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins.
Jayden Fox’s fumble ended Cherry Creek’s promising first drive as the Bruins were marching into Eagles territory. But after forcing a Valor Christian punt, the Bruins needed just three plays to drive 70 yards for a score on their next possession.
The 7-0 lead via Brady Vodicka’s 9-yard TD scramble was set up by a couple long passes to tight end Ty Goettsche and wideout Maxwell Lovett.
But Valor Christian controlled the momentum for the rest of the first half following that moment.
The Eagles got a 39-yard field goal by Luke Brust late in the first quarter to cut the score to 7-3. The Bruins appeared primed to strike right back on the next drive, using another Goettsche reception to set them up deep in Valor Christian territory.
But a holding call wiped away Fox’s 11-yard TD run, then a forced fumble on a sack pushed the Bruins even further back. Cherry Creek ended up punting, and Cash Spence muffed the fair catch, which the Bruins recovered inside the 5-yard line. Once again, a flag negated another shift in the game for Cherry Creek, as a pre-snap penalty forced the Bruins to re-punt.
Then Valor Christian went on a march. The Eagles sped up the tempo with a no-huddle drive that ate up over nine minutes of clock. The Eagles leaned on the senior running back combination of Chase Hanosh and Channing Fox to ram the ball down Cherry Creek’s throat, converting a fourth-and-short en route to Fox’s 1-yard TD dive.
It gave Valor Christian a 10-7 lead, and Brandon Wright’s interception of Vodicka on a deep ball intended for Goettsche on the ensuing possession had the Eagles hyped heading into halftime.
In the third, the Bruins forced a punt and then were driving to take the lead. But Alijah Landrum-Hamilton fumbled in the red zone, and Valor Christian’s Rocco Cali recovered.
It was the same story on Cherry Creek’s next drive, when the Bruins were about to score again but Fox coughed it up at the 10-yard line and Valor Christian’s Jaxon Wells recovered. It was Cherry Creek’s fourth turnover of the day, all of them coming in Eagles territory, and two of them in the red zone.
But Cherry Creek’s defense got another stop, and once again the Bruins found themselves knocking on the door of a score. This time, Fox punched it in with a 7-yard TD run that gave the Bruins a 14-13 lead with 10:28 left in the game.
Fox then put Cherry Creek firmly in control with a 10-yard TD run on 3rd and 8 with 3:32 remaining. Valor Christian moved the ball efficiently on its final drive in the waning minutes, but the Eagles stalled out after Titus Huard was sacked on the last play, fumbled and Tate Matthews recovered.
This story will be updated.