With the Class 5A playoffs shrunk to eight teams last year due to the pandemic, two of Colorado’s traditional blue-bloods, Grandview and Ralston Valley, were absent from the bracket.
But both the Wolves and the Mustangs bounced back in 2021, and are set to square off in the Class 5A quarterfinals on Friday at Legacy Stadium. Grandview, led by first-year coach Tom Doherty, is 9-2 after missing the playoffs in 2020 for the first time since 2004.
For Doherty — the former Cherry Creek defensive coordinator who left Greenwood Village after back-to-back state titles — this is where Grandview should always be.
“Grandview’s historically been a good program, so I want to obviously continue that and try to build on it,” Doherty said. “I want us to be really relevant, deep in the playoffs, every year. That’s my goal. It’s not always going to happen, but that’s the model I follow and everything we do… is aimed at building towards the playoffs.”
The Wolves have one Class 5A title to their credit, by way of an overtime victory over Douglas County in 2007. On the other sideline, the Mustangs are led by the lone coach in franchise history in Matt Lloyd and have made a half-dozen semifinal appearances, with the last coming in 2019. Ralston Valley, also 9-2, missed the playoffs last year for the first time in Lloyd’s 22-year tenure.
Thus, both programs have the credentials and a wave of momentum entering Friday, which is a rematch of Ralston Valley’s 24-13 win over Grandview in Week 4 at Legacy Stadium. The Mustangs jumped out to a 17-0 lead in that game, which Doherty called the “low point” of his first season on Arapahoe Road.
“We didn’t play physical, we blew coverages, we misaligned on defense, we dropped passes,” Doherty said. “We’re excited to see how much growth has occurred this season when we get to play them again.”
Lloyd said the first game between the teams this year “doesn’t mean anything now.”
“We’re just concentrating on this one,” Lloyd said. “As far as last time, our kids made a few plays at the beginning of the game, but both teams are much better in Week 12 than you are in Week 4. Their league prepares them for this moment, and I feel the same about our league because in my mind the Centennial League and the Jeffco League are the two best leagues in the state.”
The Wolves are led by sophomore quarterback Liam Szarka and senior running back Moosah Alsaffar. The latter came back from a hamstring injury around midseason and has rattled off four consecutive 100-yard rushing games, with seven touchdowns in that time frame.
Defensively, Grandview employs multiple base packages (3-5-3, 3-4, 4-3) and has a talented and deep secondary featuring senior safety Malique Singleton, senior corner Kahden Rullo, senior corner Marcus Williams, senior safety Tanner Lippold, junior safety Gibson Leafgreen and senior safety Andrew Sarro. Singleton (Wyoming commit) ranks second in Class 5A with six interceptions, two of which he’s returned for scores.
Meanwhile, the Mustangs’ defensive impact players are senior linebacker Steele Fredricks, junior safety Jason Thome, senior corner Davis Brickle and junior nose guard Gunner Schoepflin. On offense, Ralston Valley rotates in three quarterbacks — senior Zach Friedman, junior James Wochner and sophomore Logan Madden — and uses a stable of various receivers and backs.
“We have different personnel groupings for all of the quarterbacks,” Lloyd said. “We keep mixing it up and we’re trying to make it more difficult for teams to game-plan against us. All of our QBs can run, they can all throw. It’s just the way it was this year. It’s about spreading the ball around and letting as many guys impact the game as possible, and that’s extending to our quarterbacks.”
Friday’s kickoff in Aurora is at 7 p.m.
