PARKER — New money trumped old blood on Thursday night in the Battle of the Rock.
Castle View trailed 16-0 within the first six minutes against Douglas County, but the Sabercats didn’t blink. Instead, they rattled off 37 unanswered points, running the ball at will and notching a slew of impressive defensive stops to dominate the rivalry at EchoPark Stadium.
The 37-16 outcome once again affirmed the stronger football program in Castle Rock. After Douglas County won the first three match-ups in the cross-town rivalry from 2012-14, Castle View’s now won eight of the last 10.
“We knew they were going to come out firing, because we already had the trophy from last year and they had nothing to lose,” Castle View senior quarterback Derek Gordon said. “But we knew if we kept swinging, they would give up. And we told our running backs, ‘You’re going to get the rock a lot. Better tote it.’ They did a great job, and our line killed it.
“I think we ended up making another statement (in this rivalry).”
Douglas County raced to its big lead before the Sabercats offense even had a chance to touch the ball. Early on, it looked like it could be a blowout the other way.
On the game’s opening possession, DC junior quarterback Aaden Parsons found junior receiver Nolan Case wide open on 3rd and 15. Case reeled in the pass and then outraced everyone to the endzone for a 75-yard TD reception.
Then Castle View committed a blunder on the ensuing kickoff, when senior Jeremiah Craft attempted to reverse the field after getting the ball. But he ran backwards into the end zone and slammed into the backjudge, falling down for a safety as a gang of purple corralled him. That made it 9-0.
After the Sabercats punted, Douglas County again found the endzone on third-and-long. This time it was on 3rd-and-goal from the 12, when Parsons rolled out on a play-action boot and passed to Cameron Cayou. The senior tailback then powered through a Sabercats defender to get into the endzone, giving Douglas County a 16-0 advantage.
That prompted the purple faithful to hit the Castle View student section with the “why so quiet?” chant. But the Sabercats sideline wasn’t rattled, and posted 16 straight points of their own to tie the game before halftime.
First, Castle View put together an impressive 80-yard drive highlighted by several long runs and capped by senior Aaron Perry’s three-yard scoring scamper. That would set the tone for the night as DC consistently failed to stop the run.
“We got pushed around up front on our defense,” Douglas County head coach Eric Rice said. “Our defensive line and linebackers had a tough time stopping their base plays. … Fatigue played a factor in that, because they had some long, sustained drives. But hats off to them, because they had a great gameplan. They came in, controlled the ball well, and ran their top three running plays over and over and said, ‘Try to stop it.’ And we didn’t.”
After a Huskies punt, the Sabercats scored again, this time via Camden Tobler’s 19-yard TD run. The senior captain shed several defenders on his run and carried another into the endzone, then came to the sideline and bowed for his red-clad crowd. Castle View missed the extra point, but the deficit was now 16-13 with 7:32 left in the second quarter.
The Sabercats defense then muscled up again to snuff out another drive — aided by an overthrown pass by Parsons on a would-be TD down the seam — and Castle View junior Christian Montero drilled a 36-yard field goal as time expired in the frame to tie the game heading into the break.
“We went into the locker room after that kick, and our kids were chomping at the bit to get back out,” Castle View head coach Frank Martin said. “We wanted to continue to show what type of team we are, because we weren’t playing to our standard in that first six minutes.”
Castle View got the ball to open the third quarter and they picked up right where they left off.
After a kick return for a TD was wiped off the board due to an illegal block, the Sabercats marched the field anyways, capped by Tobler’s two-yard TD run that gave them their first lead at 23-16.
Then came another momentum shift when Douglas County went for it on 4th and 2 from their own 41-yard line. The Huskies had a proper play dialed up, but Case bobbled and then dropped the would-be first down. Another CV scoring drive followed, with Tobler scoring his third TD. This one was from one-yard out, and the Sabercats went from in control to total control, up 30-16.
“The line took care of business tonight,” Tobler said. “We ran right behind them, and to be honest, we ran them over.”
Castle View (4-0) proceeded to pile on, with Gordon’s 24-yard TD pass to Sam Harry that pushed the score to 37-16 with 7:43 left. Now, it was the Sabercats’ student section’s turn with the “why so quiet?” chant. The Huskies (3-1), meanwhile, never got close to scoring again, and senior safety Zach Bitton put the game on ice with Castle View’s second interception.
“Our defense was relentless,” CV senior defensive end Cameron Ochoa said. “We acted like it was 0-0 on the clock the entire time. We kept the pressure on them and our foot on the gas.”
The Sabercats have several huge tests remaining, including Legend next week, Valor Christian on Oct. 11 and Mountain Vista to close the regular season on Nov. 1. Castle View upset Legend last year, en route to a six-win turnaround from 2022 and the program’s first playoff win since 2018. Now this season, the Sabercats want to take that success several steps further behind a 25-man senior class.
“We have a lot of confidence, so it’s going to be all about next week against Legend,” Martin said. “They’re bullies, and we’ve got to withstand that (up front). Next week will tell you everything you need to know about us. We’re going to have to batten down the hatches, run a bunch of trick plays.”
And for the Huskies, whom Rice is continuing to build in his sixth year at the helm, the message postgame was that DC has a lot of season left. That starts with a stiff test against Chatfield next week.
“We understand that this is just one game,” Rice said. “Yes, it’s a rivalry game and our players want to win it. But now we’ve got to get better this next week and see what we can do with the rest of our season. … (Playoffs) is always the goal, and we feel like we have a playoff-caliber team.”
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