On Friday night, October 6, Fossil Ridge High School took on Cherry Creek High School in their Homecoming football game under the lights of French Field. Unfortunately, after a hard fought game, the Cats lost 7-56 to the Bruins.

Two minutes after the opening whistle, the Bruins scored the first touchdown of the game taking a quick 7 point lead over the SaberCats.

The Cats offense, lead by QB Tanner Hoke, worked the ball up the field, Hoke himself drove through the middle of the field on a few plays to get the Cats 15 yards. However, Cherry Creek was able to stop them around the 35 yard line, and take possession.

With 9:01 remaining in the first quarter, the Bruins scored again, pulling farther away from Fossil Ridge. The Cats continued to fight, and again were stopped just short of reaching Cherry Creek’s red-zone on their next possession.

After another touchdown by the Bruins, Hoke remained focused along with the rest of the SaberCat offense, and the boys began working their way down the field, getting first down after first down.

Hoke ran the ball for 26 yards on that possession, but on the following play a Bruin intercepted the ball, and ran it down all the way to the 2 yard line, where he was tackled by Casey Knutsen, on a nearly 55 yard sprint.

By the end of the first quarter, Fossil Ridge was trailing Cherry Creek 0-28, but the boys didn’t hang their heads, they continued to fight until halftime, only allowing the Bruins to score two more times.

At halftime Cherry Creek held a 7-42 lead over the SaberCats.

The Cats came out of the locker room determined to slow down the Bruin offense, and that is exactly what they did. By the end of the game, the Cats had only allowed Cherry Creek to score two more times.

Fossil Ridge took a hard 7-56 loss to Cherry Creek, (4-2-0), one of the best teams in the state of Colorado. Senior Kevyn Simpson stated, “We had some confidence in ourselves going into the game, we knew that if we played hard we could hang with them. My main goal last night was to have as much fun as possible with my brothers, we knew they were going to be a very tough opponent, so we studied lots of film and had a hard week of practice. I believe as a team, we did try our hardest, and unfortunately the result wasn’t what we wanted.”  

Fossil prepared for this game, the week prior, with a clear game plan in mind, Head Coach Zak Bigelow shared a bit about what that plan entailed; he stated, “Bend but don’t break on defense and force their offense to perfectly execute their plays in order to score, and on defense we wanted to give them some new plays and formations they hadn’t seen yet to try and off balance them.”

Bigelow undoubtedly believes in this group of boys, and is very frustrated with the record the team has accumulated thus far (0-6-0). Bigelow commented, “We will not have any bit of success until we learn to protect the football and win the turnover battle.”

Bigelow take his position very seriously here at Fossil Ridge, and expressed what coaching means to him. “Coaching means two things to me, the first being that it is an opportunity I have to help create great experiences for these kids, and second, to provide these boys a platform to shape their lives while imparting my wisdom on what growing into a man will look like.”

Of course no team wants a result like this in their Homecoming game, but it didn’t break the spirit of the team. The SaberCats may not have a golden record, but they definitely have the heart, and the work ethic of champions.

After six weeks, and six losses, this team still shows up to practice with smiles on their faces, and works very hard knowing this season isn’t over yet. Simpson commented, “The rest of the season I just want to work as hard as I can with my boys, and try and get a win or two for my senior season, and I think we have a chance of doing that. It seems to all be coming together, slowly but surely, and we are playing for something bigger than us, so hopefully we can get a win soon.”