Centauri crushes Monte Vista, secures playoff berth

Photo by Ken Hamrick Centauri High School’s Zach Burr runs for positive yards against Monte Vista on Friday. Burr finished with 68 yards on 10 carries in the 55-8 win.

Pirates advanced to postseason, seeded No. 13 in 1A

MONTE VISTA — The Centauri High School football team entered Friday’s game at Monte Vista ranked second in the CHSAA Class 1A poll and first in the CHSAA rating percentage index (RPI). The Falcons remained perfect on the season and secured a berth in the Class 1A state playoffs with a 55-8 win over the Pirates, thus winning the Southern Peaks League.

“I know we’ll be either one or two,” said Centauri coach Kyle Forster following Friday’s game. “We’re excited for it.”

The Falcons (8-0, 3-0 SPL) were seeded second in the playoffs and host No. 15 Peyton (6-3, 3-0 Sante Fe League) at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 6.

Monte Vista (6-3, 3-1 SPL) entered ranked 12th in the RPI. But Pirates coach Manny Wasinger believes that Friday’s loss did not hurt the Pirates’ playoff chances. And it didn’t as the Pirates were seeded No. 13 and will travel to face fourth-seeded Florence (8-1, 2-1 Tri-Peaks League) at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

Limon (9-0, 5-0 North Central League) was the top seed in 16-team bracket and Buena Vista (9-0, 3-0 Tri-Peaks) was seeded third.

“Mathematically we’re probably going to go up in the RPI,” Wasinger said. “Because Centauri is No. 1 and their strength of schedule is so good. That’s a good football team and they have a chance to win it all and playing them should help us. We don’t control that. We’re hoping that things go in our favor and we get in the playoffs. We’ll put this behind us and get ready for a playoff game next week.”

Centauri wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as it found the end zone on its first possession. Deven Brady ran 68 yards for the touchdown, and Kaleb Anderson booted the point after for a 7-0 lead with 9:38 left in the first quarter.

A short Monte Vista punt put Centauri in good field position midway through the first with the Falcons taking over on the Pirates’ 19. Quarterback Byron Shaw scored on a 6-yard run two plays later. Anderson again made the extra point.

The Falcons scored one more time before the end of the first quarter and Brady plunged into the end zone from three yards out. Anderson’s extra point was good again and Centauri had a 21-0 lead after the first quarter.

Brady scored for a third time early in the second quarter as he went into the end zone on a 26-yard run. Anderson kicked the point-after again for a 28-0 advantage.

Shaw accounted for the next touchdown as he threw a 30-yard strike to Baron Holman. Anderson made another point after for a 35-0 lead.

The Falcons got another touchdown on the final play of the first half as Zach Buhr scored on a 1-yard run. This time, Monte Vista blocked Anderson’s point-after attempt, but Centauri led 41-0 at halftime.

The second half was played under a running clock, but the Falcons found the end zone two more times. First Shaw scored on a 39-yard quarterback keeper early in the third quarter. Dylan Vasquez wrapped up the scoring for Centauri for a 55-0 lead.

Monte Vista put together a scoring drive on its final possession of the game. DeAngelo Archuleta put the Pirates into scoring position with a 22-yard run, and then Khegan Gunter wrapped up the drive with a 20-yard run. Andrew Chavez ran in the two-point conversion.

Wasinger was pleased that the Pirates executed the final drive.

“I know they had some young kids in, but our kids played hard and we’re proud of that,” Wasinger said. “We pride ourselves on playing four quarters all year long and they played hard all year. We just ran into a really good football team tonight.”

Centauri ran off 480 yards of total offense with 352 coming on the ground. Brady led the ground game with 137 yards on 11 carries, followed by Shaw with 86 yards on 10 carries, and Buhr with 68 yards on 10 carries.

Shaw also completed 10 out of 11 passes for 128 yards. Holman was his top receiver with five receptions for 92 yards.

Forster said that the Falcons had plenty of practice after not playing last week.

“We played well with two weeks of practice,” Forster said. “The first week we had fun and let the kids kind of relax and enjoy football again. Last week was back to work and we came out ready to play tonight.”

Monte Vista managed 108 total yards with 94 coming in the ground game. Archuleta led the team with 50 yards on 14 carries and Gunter ran for 31 yards on nine carries.

Colton Mellott completed one of four passes for 14 yards. Dusty Duran had the Pirates only reception.

CENTAURI 55, MONTE VISTA 8

Centauri          21        20        7          7 – 55

Monte Vista    0          0          0          8 – 8

First quarter

C – Brady 68 run (Anderson kick), 9:38

C – Shaw 6 run (Anderson kick), 5:28

C – Brady 3 run (Anderson kick), 0:33

Second quarter

C – Brady 26 run (Anderson kick), 10:54

C – Holman 30 pass from Shaw (Anderson kick), 7:21

C – Buhr 1 run (Anderson kick), 1:00

Third quarter

C – Shaw 39 run (Anderson kick), 9:17

Fourth quarter

C – Vasquez 14 run (Anderson kick), 7:41

MV – Gunter 20 run (Chavez run), 0:00