Photo by Will Cornelius
The Spartan defense celebrates after recovering a fumble on defense. From left to right, Elisha Mosher, Aiden McGrath and Daniel Mahoney.

By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

Spartan football collected their third road victory on Sept. 29 as they ran over, around and through the Fort Lupton High School Blue Devils in a 48-17 win. Berthoud High School finished the game with a total of 336 yards rushing and five touchdowns on the ground as their offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage all game.

“It was a good game. They played a hard game, we did too. We just relied on our O-line, our run game, we got a good quarterback and good receivers. We’re like a brotherhood this year, that’s what I think is really going to make us go far,” said Berthoud senior two-way lineman Garrett Pawlowski after the win.

Quarterback Darin Davidson started the scoring with a short run up the middle for a touchdown in the first quarter. But the Spartan extra point kick fell short to keep the score 6-0. Fort Lupton responded with a 40-yard field goal to open the second quarter but those would be the only points they scored until Berthoud pulled their starters toward the end of the game.
Relying on a devastating rushing attack, the Spartans marched down the field on the ensuing drive with big first-down runs from tailbacks Alex Larson and Cole Bialek. Then on Berthoud’s first pass attempt of the game, Davidson threw a short screen pass to wide receiver Weston Peatrowsky who ran 25 yards untouched into the endzone. A successful extra point made it 13-3 for the Spartans.

Berthoud’s defense made the next impact play when Pawlowski wrestled with Fort Lupton quarterback Royce Guerrero before Joe Poula-Smith stripped the ball resulting in a turnover.

“Shout out to my boy Joe, he got the fumble,” Pawlowski exclaimed. On the next play, Larson ran the ball to the far pylon of the endzone for another Spartan touchdown. A two-point conversion run from Davidson made the game 21-3.

At the end of the second quarter, Berthoud’s Peyton Evans blocked a punt by the Blue Devils that was recovered by the Spartans 18 yards from the endzone with 51 seconds left in the quarter. Two plays later, Davidson floated a perfect pass to junior Jayden Michaelis in the endzone on a corner route. After the extra point kick, the Spartans held a 28-3 lead after the first half.

Any chance of a Blue Devil comeback was quickly extinguished in the third quarter. After receiving the second-half kickoff, Fort Lupton went three-and-out and punted to Berthoud. On the next play, Larson took a handoff and broke free for a 55-yard touchdown. A bad snap on the extra-point attempt resulted in no additional points and the score stayed at 34-3. The Spartan defense forced another turnover when Michaelis intercepted a deep pass from Fort Lupton’s Guerrero. Shortly after, Larson scored another breakaway touchdown, this time for 50 yards, on the offense’s first play of the drive. After a successful extra point, Berthoud held a commanding 41-3 lead.

At the start of the fourth quarter with the game in hand, Berthoud pulled its starters to give its backups valuable playing time. Fort Lupton managed two touchdowns against the Spartan’s second-string defense while Ethan Hofmeister scored Berthoud’s seventh touchdown of the night. The final score of the game was 48-17.

“We’ve progressed so much. Even last week, we played a team at a similar level and we scored 26. This week we scored 48,” Peatrowsky said after the game about the team’s improvement over five games this season.

Seven Spartans ran for at least 20 yards or a touchdown in the game. Leading the attack was Larson with 168 yards and three touchdowns on only 11 carries. Bialek was second on the team with 59 yards from nine carries, followed by Joey Finnegan with 29 yards on four carries.

Returning from injury, Ben Larson contributed on both sides of the ball, with 22 yards rushing from three carries to go along with eight tackles and a half sack. “I feel like it was a good team win,” Larson stated.
Davidson turned in another efficient passing performance, finishing 4-of-5 for 56 yards and two touchdowns. On the ground, he added 21 yards rushing with a touchdown on four carries. Davidson also ran in his second two-point conversion of the season.

Sophomore Jayce Newbill made his mark on special teams with punt returns of 40 and 12 yards along with a 28-yard kickoff return.

On defense, the Spartans finished with over 100 tackles and a season-high six sacks. Senior linebacker Aiden McGrath led the team with 12 tackles, followed by Finnegan who had 10 tackles, including 1.5 sacks.

“The first unit on defense—they’re just playing stellar football. Coach (Isaac) Vandeweert on defense has put some special things together,” said Head Football Coach Cory Ticnor about the team’s stout defense.

“It’s a great start to the season. Whenever you start 5-0 you can’t complain. At this point, we’re going to nitpick a little bit and try to get better because the exciting part is we still haven’t put together a perfect game,” Ticnor mentioned about the team’s focus. In particular, he wants to improve the team’s fortunes on point-after attempts, which have been a thorn in the side for the team the last two weeks.

Halfway through the season, Berthoud (5-0) remains undefeated but will face two tough back-to-back games over the next couple of weeks. On Oct. 6, the Spartans host Forge Christian High School (3-2) of Arvada for Homecoming. Then on Oct. 12, the defending 2A state champions, Eaton High School (3-2), will travel to Berthoud for a highly anticipated Thursday night matchup.

“They’re going to be tough, so we got to watch film on them. We got to get better every day,” Pawlowski said about this week’s preparation for the Homecoming game against Forge Christian.