Class 2A Semifinals Breakdown
Official Coin Flip for the state championship: La Junta host if Kent Denver wins or Delta hosts if Delta wins and La Junta wins, Bayfield will host if they beat La Junta regardless of opponent.
#1 La Junta vs #5 Bayfield Saturday 1:00pm
Bayfield kept defending their state championship by blowing past Sterling 41 to 0. Bayfield is out to prove it was not just a one year run and are trying to make it a second state championship. Bayfield had one of their better days defensively holding a Sterling team who had broken 25 points in their past 6 games. Sterling also scored 55 points in the first round so the shut out by Bayfield was very impressive. Defensively they were led in tackles by Hunter Killough who had 12 tackles Bayfield also had 1 INT and 1 Fumble recovery. Offensively Bayfield had one of their better outputs all season. They had a total of 492 yards of total offense. They threw for 137 yards and 4 touchdowns and they ran for 355 yards and 2 touchdowns. Their rushing attack was led by Josh Westbrook who ran for 101 yards and threw for 86 yards for a total of 3 touchdowns. Bayfield has improved nearly every week and are looking to grab another upset and repeat what they did last year to La Junta in the Semifinals. Bayfield must bring the type of intensity they had this week against Sterling. Offensively Bayfield will need another huge day but that won’t be easy against the best defense in 2A.
La Junta continues to power towards the state championship and they blew past a high powered offense. They hammered D’Evelyn 41 to 7. La Junta has not input offensive stats but their offense is usually led by their rushing attack and I am guessing that was the case here. Defense is La Junta strong point and they proved it this weekend. D’Evelyn offensively is a high powered pass first offense and they were slowed down completely. D’Evelyn only threw for 144 yards 1 TD and 1 INT. That is good but not enough to win a game. Rushing the ball D’Evelyn was completely stopped only rushing for 65 yards and 0 TD. The 7 points allowed by La Junta is their 10th game out of 11 that they held an opponent to under 10 points. La Junta now must refocus and get ready for a rematch of last year’s semifinals were they lost to Bayfield. La Junta will need their defense to be on point and must be ready for another good offense but also ready for one of the better defenses as well.
Both these teams have 3 common opponents. They played Gunnison, Alamosa, and Florence. Bayfield beat Gunnison 34-3, Alamosa 44-0, and Florence 41-0. La Junta beat Gunnison 54-0, Alamosa 32-7, and Florence 28-7. If those scores tell you anything these teams’ defenses are very good. La Junta has the edge defensively only giving up 4.5 ppg and Bayfield is giving up 5.9 ppg. I would say these two teams are very even and this match up honestly could be better than who they will face in the state championship. This reminds me of the Alamosa state championship run where Florence and Alamosa played and it was a nail bitter than Alamosa blew out the team in the finals. This matchup reminds me of this game and it should be a great game. The keys to the games are pretty simple. Which team will break first on defense and the turnover battle. I see the score to this game being 24 to 21 or something very similar to that and it will come down to a last second drive where either a defense makes a stop or falters late. This game will be a fun one to hear about once it’s completed and a fun game to watch the highlights off. I am going with La Junta here in a very tight contest and have them winning by 4. I am going with them because they have a slightly better defense but honestly this game could go either way.
#6 Kent Denver vs #10 Delta Saturday 1:00pm
Delta is the Cinderella of the playoff this year and are the second high seed to make a run into the semifinals the other high seed is playing for a state championship and I am sure Delta would love a shot at it as well. Delta upset the #2 seed Resurrection Christian 23 to 8. Delta held a high powered offense to under 10 points and used their rushing attack to control the game. Defensively Delta held Resurrection Christian for the first time all year to under 20 points. They won the turnover battle 2 to 1 and had a great game from Tristan Brown both offensively and defensively. Defensively Brown had 12 tackles to lead his team. Delta on offense did enough to control the game. They threw for 145 yards 1 TD and 1 INT. Rushing the ball Delta had a good game rushing for 276 yards and 2 touchdowns. Resurrection Christian kept Delta main running back in check but their #2 running back Tristan Brown had another great game rushing for 151 yards. Delta now is trying to pull off what Cheyenne Wells is doing and get into the state championship by trying to upset another high seed. They will need their defense to play another great game and also need their rushing attack to be on point.
Kent Denver decided to pull off another huge upset last week as well. I had TCA in the state championship but Kent Denver showed that the game is played on the field and not on paper. Kent Denver was able to slow down TCA offense just enough to pull the upset. Kent Denver gave up 178 yards passing and 205 yards rushing but also caused two fumbles where the turning points in the game were. Kent Denver will have some issues to fix defensively this week because they cannot allow the amount of offense again and hope to win. Kent Denver offensively was pretty good. They only threw for 58 yards but ran for 285 yards and 2 touchdowns. Their offense was led by their two running backs. Joshua McDonald ran for 128 yards and Spencer Serumaga ran for 108 yards and 1 touchdown. Kent Denver offensively will need their offense to continue this pace. Kent Denver offense will probably need a bit more production from their passing attack but their rushing attack was very good. If Kent Denver can get their defensive woes fixed a bit they could be looking at a state championship game.
These teams have one common opponent. They both played against Faith Christian and both won. Delta beat Faith Christian 14 to 7 and Kent Denver beat them 27 to 12. Delta has a ton of momentum after pulling a huge upset of the #2 team. They must use that plus keep their defense playing at a high level. Their offense was very good and now have to huge weapons out of the backfield and Delta has proven that their QB can complete passes as well. Kent Denver also has some very good momentum after pulling the upset. They will need to fix their defense they cannot allow over 350 yards of offense and expect to pull off a victory. They now face a rushing attack that is very good and that will test that defense yet again. The keys for this game are simple who can stop the run first and who can produce the most turnover. Both teams proved that turnover were keys to their victories. I don’t think either team can win by losing the turnover battle so that is a big key. The bigger key is who runs the ball better and controls the line of scrimmage. Both Kent Denver and Delta needed big games on the ground to pull the upset so whoever runs for more yardage will grab the victory. Either team who wins will have a huge test in the state championship but they cannot overlook each other. These teams are really even as well they are within two point of each other in scoring and defensive point allowed. The biggest difference is Delta is running the ball much better than Kent Denver and their passing attack is also better. This game will also come down to which defense comes to play. I am going with Delta again to pull the upset by 10. Their offense is better in both running and passing and I think that will be a key in this game.
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