Cherry Creek dominates Valor Christian to send Bruins to seventh straight Class 5A title game
Cherry Creek dominated Valor Christian in the Class 5A semifinal at the Stutler Bowl. That sent coach Dave Logan's squad to its seventh straight title game appearance.
GREENWOOD VILLAGE — The Bruins are, once again, inevitable.
Cherry Creek dominated Valor Christian on Saturday in the Class 5A semifinal at the Stutler Bowl, 42-17. That sent coach Dave Logan’s squad to its seventh straight title game as the Bruins seek to get back on top after falling in last year’s championship to Columbine.
Saturday’s game was never close as the Bruins dominated in all facets. Quarterback Brady Vodicka and fellow junior running back Jayden Fox paced the offense while the Cherry Creek defense had a pair of takeaways that helped the Bruins pull away early.
Fox’s 2-yard TD run put Cherry Creek up 7-0 late in the first quarter. Then an interception by Bruins senior safety Dwight Johnson, who sat down in coverage and read Dawson Olk’s pass, set Cherry Creek up in the red zone and led to Vodicka’s 23-yard touchdown run a few plays later to make it 14-0 in the waning seconds of the first.
The Bruins defense had another highlight midway through the second quarter when senior linebacker Ashton Shepardson picked off a screen pass and ran it back 25 yards for a TD to extend the lead to 21-0.
Valor Christian (11-2) then used an interception by senior safety Israel Waitman off a failed trick play to set up a scoring drive that culminated in do-everything junior Cash Spence’s 1-yard TD run out of the wildcat. That put the Eagles on the board at 21-7 with less than five minutes until half.
But Cherry Creek had a response via Alijah Landrum-Hamilton’s 17-yd TD reception with 28 seconds left in the half. Even though the Eagles were able to muster a 45-yard field goal from senior Mason Walters at the halftime buzzer, Cherry Creek went into the locker room in command, 28-10.
The Bruins got the ball to open the third quarter and marched down the field on a time-consuming drive that took 5 minutes, 11 seconds, and was polished off by Fox’s 5-yard TD run to push the score to 35-10.
By the time Cherry Creek went on another clock-killing scoring drive that ate up 6:37 and was capped by freshman Elijah Cromwell’s 5-yard TD run, the Valor Christian fan section was thinning. Cromwell’s TD made it 42-10 with 9:42 left, and about seven minutes later, Olk threw a late TD pass to sophomore Jackson Coleman.
Saturday marked the 12th overall meeting between the two Colorado powerhouses since they first met in 2014.
Cherry Creek’s victory evened the all-time series at 6-6, though the Bruins hold a 4-1 advantage in title matchups. That included three straight wins over Valor Christian in the big game from 2020-22, as well as an instant-classic 25-24 victory in 2014 highlighted by a Bruins rally and late two-point conversion to deny the Eagles their sixth straight title.
Cherry Creek plays Legend in next Saturday’s title game at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, after the Titans beat Fairview 35-21 at EchoPark Stadium. There, the Bruins (12-1) will be favored to win their fifth title in the last six years.
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