GLENWOOD SPRINGS (8/31/18) — The venue was Stubler Memorial Stadium and not the OK corral, but Holy Family’s Calahan Carter did a fairly accurate Wyatt Earp impression as the Tigers won a 57-35 shootout in the debut of Glenwood Springs’ new head football coach, Pat Engle.
The Demons set the evening’s tone with an opening, 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive – all on the ground, from the double-wing, double-tight close formation, which in itself was quite a departure from the Rocky Whitworth spread offensive regime. Glenwood’s four-minute, 15-second drive was answered in about half that time by Holy Family, which had to overcome a bus breakdown on the way over the mountains from Denver, causing a half-hour delay in the game’s start.
The explosive exchange was just the beginning, as the first eight possessions of the game resulted in scores and a 30-29 Tiger lead at halftime. Glenwood, featuring sweeps to the left and right by Gavin Olson and Luke Gair, along with bull rushes up the middle from Eliot Dwyer-Walz and a 93-yard kickoff return for a touchdown from Wyatt Ewer, led the Tigers by 13, 29-16 with 7:29 to go in the half. Following an 8-play, 80-yard drive that ended in the first of three consecutive touchdown passes by Carter, the Demons finally blinked, and were forced to punt.
A 43-yard pass from Carter to Jake Alderman on an underneath pattern in the right flat keyed a five-play, 79-yard drive that took just 1:33, ended in a 25-yard touchdown pass to Ben Nappe, and gave Holy Family its first lead, by one point at halftime.
The Tigers drove 80 yards in four minutes to open the second half, increasing their edge to 36-29 when Carter floated a 14-yard TD pass to Devin Doroff in the left corner of the end zone. Glenwood put together a pair of rushing first downs by Olson and Gair, but a penalty on first down at midfield put the Demons in first-and-long and three runs just got them back to the original line of scrimmage, forcing Olson’s second punt which went into the end zone.
Holy Family’s first possession without a score was keyed by a sack from Jack Richards and Tucker Porter and Demon quarterback Max Lemkau blocking Liam Gray’s 28 yard field goal attempt with 43 seconds left in the third quarter. Gray had booted a 20-yard FG just prior to Ewer’s spectacular kickoff return near the end of the first period that gave Glenwood a 21-10 lead.
Trailing by seven going into the final period, the Demons put the ball on the ground for the game’s first turnover at the GSHS 22, followed by a 20 yard Carter-to-Doroff connection and Kyle Helbig’s two yard TD, his fourth of the game, for a 43-29 lead with 11:43 to play. Helbig, a senior, was the Tigers’ quarterback last season, but with Carter passing for 302 yards, has settled nicely into Mr. Touchdown, scoring on another two-yard run four minutes later for a 50-29 Holy Family lead.
Glenwood turned the ball over at its 32 following the kickoff and the Tigers’ back-up QB, Davis Martinek tallied his team’s final score with 4:35 to play. Olson, who left the game with an apparent injury earlier in the quarter, returned to ignite a 72-yard scoring drive with a 32 yard burst to the Tiger 40, and capped it, turning a short pass from Lemkau into a 31-yard touchdown for the final score with 30 seconds remaining.
Olson also scored the game’s first touchdown on a 10-yard run and finished with 192 yards rushing on 23 attempts. Dwyer-Walz had a pair of 1-yard TD plunges, adding 55 yards on 12 carries. Gair topped the 100-yard mark, gaining 102 on 13 runs. Lemkau was 2-of-3 passing for 64 yards, leading the Demons to 18 first downs. Glenwood rushed 56 times for 372 yards, 50 more than in any game last season.
Carter, who was 3-for-5 passing for 25 yards in the first quarter, was nearly unstoppable the rest of the way, completing 19 of 22 for 277 yards and three touchdowns. The Tigers (2-0) rushed for 246 yards and five touchdowns in 50 attempts.
Glenwood travels to Colorado Springs Harrison in the second of five non-league games before beginning 3A Western Slope play with Eagle on October 5.
