PARKER — On a night that featured the top two offenses in Class 3A, Holy Family’s defense supplanted center stage.
Lutheran — with the highest scoring offense in the classification at an average of more than 50 points per game — totaled more bumps and bruises than anything else at its field Friday as the Tigers clinched the Colorado League title by way of a 38-14 victory.
Holy Family, coming into Week 5 ranked sixth in the latest CHSAA coaches poll, and Lutheran, No. 2, were smoldering off four straight 25-plus point wins apiece. And yet for both of them, a victory in the programs’ first meeting in 15 years was needed to keep their playoff hopes strong.
Like all teams coming into the second-to-last week of the regular season, postseason fates were all but murky due to the oddity of playing through the COVID-19 pandemic. A season on demo mode, teams were given just six games to build their case for one of the eight postseason spots available in each classification.
And thanks in large part to the Tigers’ harassing defense, Mike Gabriel and company’s resumé is top of the deck.
It was the defense that set the tone early, baffling both the Lions’ 3A top-ranked passing game and their second-ranked rush attack. So much so, Lutheran’s first three possessions ended with a splat: A failed fake punt attempt, a fourth down that went 19 yards backward, then the first of two interceptions by Jacob Lawver.
Off it, Holy Family’s first three times with the ball started inside the 50 and it scored on each.
It tallied two TD runs by senior Trevin Johnson in the first quarter. With his second TD, and 11th of the year, Johnson seared towards the pylon, trucked a defender into the end zone, and then politely handed the ball to an official.
Fitting enough for a team that has cordially invited teams to a bludgeoning in the opening quarter, a frame the Tigers have outscored teams 102-11 this fall.
A Liam Gray kick then made it 17-0 with 11:56 left in the second quarter.
Quarterback Michael White shined in the second half, adding two throwing touchdowns and a rushing score to seal things. In the third, the senior connected with Oscar Sena on a 35-yard score, then found Gray a few minutes later for a 31-yard TD.
Holy Family will end the regular season with Pueblo Centennial next week.
Through five weeks, its offense is averaging 44.2 points and the defense is holding teams to 12 points.
