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Broncos Turning it Around

SaberCats ousted from playoffs

Second-half turnovers, early deficit too much to overcome
BY TOM PURFIELD
For the Coloradoan

PUEBLO - A great amount of fight and grit wasn't quite enough to keep state championship hopes alive for the Fossil Ridge High School football team.

The SaberCats battled to the final gun Saturday afternoon before falling to Pueblo County 36-26 in the Class 3A state quarterfinals at Hornets Stadium. Three second-half turnovers and an inability to slow down the Hornets' punishing running game combined to prevent Fossil Ridge from earning a date in the semifinals.

Despite falling in a 24-8 hole early in the second half, Fossil Ridge narrowed the deficit to 10 twice. But both times, Pueblo County answered with touchdowns to keep the SaberCats from gathering game-changing momentum.

"You keep trying, but kind of in the back of your mind, it seems hopeless. It wasn't," Fossil Ridge coach Clint Fick said. "I never felt our kids backed down."

Fossil Ridge, the sixth seed in the 3A field, ended its season at 9-3. No. 3 Pueblo County (11-1) advances to play No. 10 Berthoud (10-2) in the semifinals.

Pueblo County's strong interior defense held Fossil Ridge to 105 yards rushing, which led to quarterback Brian Leistikow going primarily to the air. Leistikow went 12 for 29 for 215 yards passing with two touchdowns to Mike Lamb.

The Hornets ran it a whopping 64 times for 322 yards, and backs Joe Pullara and Gio Rider combined for five touchdowns.

"It was kind of hit-and-miss. We stopped them sometimes, and sometimes they had breaks," Fossil Ridge linebacker Greg Rushing said. "I thought we did a great job at gang-tackling and hitting them low, just not quite good enough."

The 'Cats caught a tough break early after putting the Hornets in field-goal formation on fourth-and-eight. The Fossil Ridge sideline was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct - the fourth dead-ball flag in five plays - which led to Pueblo County getting a new set of downs and scoring the opening touchdown.

"We got called for saying something on the sideline, but it did not happen," Fick said. "Officials make mistakes but that one was unfortunate."

Fossil Ridge answered with a mammoth 17-play drive that covered 93 yards, the last 10 on a strong scoring run by Lamb. But the Hornets then put together a 14-play scoring drive of their own for a 16-8 halftime lead.

The SaberCats made a key mistake to open the second half when Leistikow lost a fumble. It led to another Pueblo County touchdown and a 24-8 lead.

Leistikow ushered quick-strike scores on two of the next three possessions, a 41-yard touchdown run and a 46-yard scoring pass off a nice misdirection-based screen play. The problem was Pueblo County answered each time with short touchdown runs by Pullara.

With 7:10 to play, the turnover bug hit again, giving Pueblo County free possessions to run more time off the clock. Leistikow hung a couple passes and was picked off twice by cornerback Marshall Stout.

"We were down and needed quick scores, and I guess the passing game is where you do it," Leistikow said. "Turnovers killed us.

That's what brought us down and really hurt us."

Leistikow gave it one last run, hitting Lamb with a 58-yard touchdown pass, but the SaberCats failed on all three two-point conversion attempts in the second half and still trailed by two scores. Pueblo County recovered a pair of onside kicks to further stymie Fossil Ridge's comeback bid.

"If we made that two-point conversion, we move within one score with 1½ minutes left and if we could have executed the onside, we still had a chance," Fick said.

"They did a great job. The kids never quit."

West KOs South in battle for the Hill

Pueblo West is the new king of the hill with a victory over Pueblo South in a 20-10 Class 4A quarterfinal elimination Friday night. This win ended a South rein in Pueblo County.

P. West	0	3	14	3	-	20
South	0	3	7	0	-	10

SCORING

S-Brandon Kliesen 36 field goal

W-Albert Padilla 35 field goal

W-Tony Chavarria 4 run (Padilla kick)

W-Chaz Vaughan 1 run (Padilla kick)

S-Brody Lockett 75 punt return (Kliesen kick)

W-Padilla 36 field goal

TEAM STATISTICS

	West	South
First downs	12	7
Rushes-yards	50-238	29-61
Passing yards	22	52
Comp-Att-Int	1-7-0	8-14-0
Punts	3-43.7	2-29.0
Fumbles-Lost	0-0	2-2
Penalties-Yards	7-40	4-30

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING-Pueblo West: Joe Torres 25-135, Chavarria 16-64, TD, Vaughan 5-8, TD, Justin Jackson 2-3, Zach Fillmore 2-28. South: Tony Medina 12-8, Kameron Rucker 7-14, Matt Riley 9-29, Lockett 1-10.

PASSING-Pueblo West: Vaughan 1-7-0, 22 yards. South: Medina 8-14-0, 52 yards.

RECEIVING-Pueblo West: Chavarria 1-22. South: Marshall De La Cruz 4-34, Riley Smith 2-10, Kameron Wilhite 1-2, Ryan Romero 1-6.

	Broncos 27, Chiefs 11
	Shanahan press conference
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Broncos, Chiefs look to rebound from disappointing losses

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos each had a disappointing first half of the season.

The beginning of the second half doesn't look much more promising for either of the AFC West rivals after both teams lost a key offensive player to an injury last weekend.

Kansas City running back Larry Johnson and Denver quarterback Jay Cutler are both uncertain for Sunday, when the Broncos and Chiefs meet at Arrowhead Stadium.

Johnson, one of the NFL's top three rushers in each of the last two seasons, sprained his right foot against Green Bay last weekend and is highly questionable for this game, Kansas City coach Herm Edwards said Tuesday. Edwards added that he's not sure how much time Johnson might miss.

"He's got a swollen foot right now so that's not good," Edwards said. "The severity of it, I don't know because I'm not the doctor. As far as I know right now, it will be very difficult for him to play this week."

Cutler, meanwhile, was carted off the field after taking a helmet to his lower left leg last Sunday against Detroit. Tests showed that his leg isn't broken, but it is badly bruised and coach Mike Shanahan said he didn't know if Cutler would practice much this week or be under center Sunday.

"There's no stress fracture. There is a bruise. It's badly bruised," Shanahan said. "We'll see what the recovery time is."

The injuries come as major blows to the Chiefs and Broncos, who are hoping to overcome their sluggish starts and take advantage of the weak AFC West.

Despite ranking near the bottom of the league in total offense, the Chiefs (4-4) are tied with San Diego for the division lead. The Broncos (3-5) have lost five of six, but are just one game back.

"I don't think a wild card is coming out of this division this year," said Edwards, whose team is 29th in the league with 15.5 points per game and 30th with 286.3 total yards a contest.

That offense could struggle even more without Johnson, who had topped 100 yards in three of his last four full games before the injury. If he's unable to play, the Chiefs will rely on a platoon of Priest Holmes and rookie Kolby Smith.

The 34-year-old Holmes, Kansas City's leading rusher from 2001-2004, has only seven carries for 17 yards in two games this season -- his first since suffering head and neck injuries in 2005.

"Priest Holmes obviously won't be the featured back. We're going to have to do it by committee," Edwards said. "Kolby Smith is going to be used. I'm not going to sit here and say Priest will carry the ball 30 times. That wouldn't be fair to Priest."

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