HS Football Homecoming

I know I am posting a lot of Ralston Valley High School sports this winter.  I am actually trying to slide into Ralston Valley as their preferred photo provider with MaxPreps.  However, that does not mean I am not going to shoot other local schools.  Arvada, Arvada West, Pomona, Standley Lake, Golden, Wheat Ridge and Westminster will still have me show up at some of their games as I continue to cover the entire north Jeffco area.  Arvada West would have been a prime school for me to try to become the preferred photo provider, but they already have a very capable photographer who shoots most of their sports, where Ralston Valley was more open to having someone covering all of their sports.

That being said, Friday night was Arvada West homecoming football game against Chatfield, and with no other main games going on in the area, it was time to cover some Friday Night Football.  My recent history with hs football homecoming games, at least until I moved to Colorado was, teams pick their homecoming game against an opponent they can either destroy or at least have a chance to win against.  A small school, a school struggling, or a crosstown rival that they beat all the time.  Arvada West, however, went up against the #3 football team in the state.  The Chatfield Chargers came into the North Area Athletic Complex with a 3-0 record and a early on favorite to go very far in the CHSAA playoffs.

Arvada West came into the game 2-1 with a couple wins against similarly ranked teams after a loss against higher ranked Overland.  So, this homecoming game was going to be a tough battle for Arvada West.

Early in the game, Chatfield jumped on the scoreboard first, but before the first quarter ended, Arvada West tied the game up.  The Chargers retook the lead going into halftime 14-7.  The Wildcats scored the only points in the third quarter on a field goal, cutting the Chargers lead to 4 points.  However, the 4th quarter provided the best action.  Early in the 4th, Chatfield hit a 45 yard touchdown pass to take a 21-10 lead, and then with about 3 minutes to go, added 20 yard touchdown for a 28-10 lead.  But then, here came Arvada West.  The Wildcats scored with around a minute left and was able to convert to cut the Chargers lead to 10 points.  With so little time left, everyone in the stadium knew the Arvada West had a plan.  Onside kick, recover, quick touchdown, onside kick, recover, field goal, overtime.  That was the plan, and after a decent onside kick the game came to a quick end as Chatfield was able to get to and recover the ball first.  While the number 3 team in the state ended the game with a respectable 28 to 18 win, Arvada West was never totally out of the game until that lost onside kick.  The Wildcats were kept in the game most of the night by their senior running back Claude Neloms.  He was real fun to watch.  Throughout the night, Neloms would break tackle after tackle, roll out of piles, and many times it took 3 or more defenders to take him down.  With a little better blocking, he could carry Arvada West into a second half win streak and a potential playoff bid.

This was a tough game to shoot.  Up until the 4th quarter, it was a lot of ground pounding, or plays on the other side of the field.  Combine that with crazy busy sidelines, and it was just difficult moving down the field.  I really think either Jeffco or CHSAA needs to really come down on who is on the sidelines.  Injured players wandering around the sidelines past the team lines, supporters of teams all but standing on the field, photographers without CHSAA credentials going beyond the sideline marks, kids playing on the sidelines, it gets crazy.  I have said it before, but it is going to be real unfortunate when one of these little kids, or a parent with a camera gets taken out by a out of control linebacker running out of bounds and hurt real bad for the high school football sidelines to force the governing bodies to crack down on who is on the sidelines.  I was shooting near the end of this game when Arvada West made a big play, and I turned to run around behind the team to get down the field to shoot the next play.  I found myself pinned in by injured players, administration, and the bench players for Chatfield, and none were paying any attention to giving me room to get through.  So I ended up moving down the field with the chain gang just to get down the sidelines unscathed.  It was crazy.

Here is my 10 shot from the game.

 

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