GREENWOOD VILLAGE — When Cherry Creek football was down 10-7 to Valor Christian at the half, senior running back Jayden Fox knew the Bruins needed a spark. 

With a boisterous home crowd at Stutler Bowl Stadium, Fox put on a show with two touchdowns in the second half to help his team to a 21-13 semifinal win over the No. 5 Eagles for the second consecutive year and advance to the Colorado High School Activities Association 5A state championship game. 

“We were down, so I had to pick my team up,” said Fox, who last week committed to play at UNLV. “I had great blocking and play calling by coach (Dave) Logan so I had to score and get the ball in the end zone.”

No. 1 Cherry Creek will attempt to defend its title next Saturday against No. 2 Ralston Valley at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins after taking the 5A state championship over Legend last year.

Ralston Valley beat No. 3 Mountain Vista, 31-28, on Saturday. Cherry Creek (13-0) seeks its 15th state championship and fifth in six years. 

The Bruins won the frigid semifinal matchup despite four turnovers in the game; before Saturday they had six throughout the team’s entire season.

The contest came down to the final play when Valor Christian (10-3) had a chance on first down in Cherry Creek territory, but a Bruin batted the ball from quarterback Titus Huard to force a fumble, which was then recovered by Cherry Creek. 

“Our strength today was we played very, very hard,” Logan said. “We made some silly mistakes and had four turnovers. You don’t normally beat a good team when that happens.”

“Our emotions kept going up and down but we just stayed together and never broke down completely,” Fox added. “We didn’t let the game get away from us and fought as a team on every possession. They want to beat us and we want to beat them, so it will always be a great game. It’s a battle and good teams on both sides, so it’s no surprise it went to the end.”

Bruins quarterback Brady Vodicka opened the scoring with a touchdown early in the first quarter, and a 40-yard field goal by Valor Christian’s Luke Brust made it 7-3 into the second quarter. 

Fox ran in for a touchdown in the second quarter, but it was brought back for a penalty and the Eagles held the Bruins to a punt. A touchdown by Valor Christian running back Channing Fox, followed by an interception on the next drive, gave the Eagles a 10-7 advantage into the half. 

Fox said the team’s experience playing out-of-state opponents this season, such as Skyridge (Lehi, Utah) and Cardinal Mooney (Sarasota, Fla.), prepared the team for adversity in Saturday’s game.

“We just have a lot of athletes on offense and defense this year. We spread the ball around,” Fox said. “We had adversity coming in, so we knew what we had to do. We just needed to fix some things and come out of the half more strong and powerful.”

Cherry Creek turned over the ball with a fumble in its first drive of the second half, and the Eagles capitalized with another field goal by Brust to go up 13-7 with about 5 minutes left in the third quarter. Another Bruins fumble ended the third quarter, but this time Cherry Creek forced a turnover on downs. 

Back-to-back touchdowns by Fox put the Bruins ahead 21-13 with less than 4 minutes left, and a big defensive play as the clock ticked to zero sealed another victory for Cherry Creek over Valor Christian, which has not beaten the Bruins since the 2018 5A state championship game.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Logan said. “Valor has a lot of great players that are well-coached. We turned the ball over four times, but our kids showed a lot of toughness and resilience. I was really proud of the fact that we hung in there when it looked like that thing would go the other way.”

Logan tells his players to take it week by week and to focus on daily improvement. Despite the program’s dominant history, the team can’t afford to get ahead of itself. 

Still, Fox has a chance to win a third state championship to close out his senior year.  

“I’m looking forward to working together, having fun, and hopefully winning a championship next week,” Fox said. “Last one best one.” 

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CHSAA state football championships 

Saturday at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins 

All games televised on Altitude TV 

Class 3A: No. 1 Windsor vs. No. 2 Pomona, 10 a.m.  

Class 4A: No. 1 Dakota Ridge vs. No. 3 Palmer Ridge, 1:30 p.m. 

Class 5A: No. 1 Cherry Creek vs. No. 2 Ralston Valley, 5 p.m. 

—Paul Klee, The Denver Gazette