The flag football 5A state tournament begins at Trailblazer Stadium

LAKEWOOD – Fittingly, Chatfield officially opened the first CHSAA-sanctioned Class 5A girls flag football state tournament on Wednesday at Trailblazer Stadium.

The No. 13 seed Chargers – state champions in the first pilot year of 2022 – defeated No. 20 Arapahoe 27-13 in a First Four playoff game.

“It was really fun because it was my seniors who started with me from the beginning. “They were sophomores when we won,” Chatfield coach Alexis Rosholt said. “It was really cool to be in the first state championship and now get our first win in the (CHSAA-sanctioned) playoffs.”

Seniors Alexis McClellan, Caitlin Dennis, Georgia Gilmore and Jaden Lodice were all members of that state championship team two years ago.

“I feel like we’re a really good group of seniors,” McClellan said. “We’re all really good friends outside of the flag.”

McClellan threw three touchdowns in the win over the Warriors (7-9 record). Chatfield and Arapahoe met earlier this season, with the Chargers earning an 18-12 win.

“We love playing Arapahoe. It’s always a really fair and clean game. Their coaching staff is great,” Rosholt said. “We were excited to get them out and have a good game.”

The scoring actually started when sophomore Sadie Goodwin threw a deep touchdown pass to sophomore Jenna Lee with 7:57 left in the first quarter. McClellan hit Lee for her second touchdown catch of the first half, giving her a 14-0 lead with 3:46 left before halftime.

Arapahoe responded with a touchdown toss from freshman Whitney Foulger to sophomore Gwen Jurbala with 9.1 seconds left before halftime.

However, Chatfield (8-8) had a nice opening drive early in the second half that ended with a touchdown pass from McClellan to Lodice, making the score 20-6.

“We haven’t really found the right rhythm this season,” McClellan said. “In that game we felt like we put everything together. The offense and defense clicked on both sides of the ball. It was a really good win.”

Arapahoe cut the lead to one point midway through the fourth quarter, but McClellan hit Goodwin for a long touchdown with 3:52 to play to seal the win.

“That felt so good,” McClellan said of her 56-yard touchdown pass to Goodwin. “It felt good to do that one big ride and then chew up the clock on the last ride.”

The Chargers ran out of time after Arapahoe turned the ball over on downs.

Chatfield will face No. 4 Cherry Creek (14-1) in a first-round game on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 12:30 p.m., back at Trailblazer Stadium. The Bruins earned a 33-16 victory over the Chargers earlier this season.

“That’s what we were hoping for,” Rosholt said of the game against Cherry Creek. “We played against them early in the season. We’ve changed pretty much everything since that game. It will be fun to compete against them.”

Jeffco Public Schools’ district stadiums will be the mecca for the 5A and 4A girls flag football state tournaments over the next two weekends.

Jeffco and Trailblazer Stadiums – near 6th Ave and Kipling St. – will host the first round and quarterfinals of the 5A state tournament on Saturday, Oct. 26. Both stadiums will host six games, starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday. The 4A first round and quarterfinals will be played this Saturday at the North Area Athletic Complex – HWY 93 and 64th Parkway in Arvada – football and soccer stadiums.

The semifinals and championship games will be played on Saturday, November 2nd at Jeffco and Trailblazer Stadiums.

Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Public Schools