Mullen runs over Poudre to reach 5A title game

By Scott Stocker, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Poudre’s Josh Morton knew he was going to draw plenty of attention heading into Saturday’s Class 5A state semifinal football game against Mullen at Brother Bernard D’Lasalle Stadium. And, he certainly did.

But when it came down to crunch time, it was Poudre who had to pay plenty of attention to Mullen’s ace running backs, Adonis Ameen-Moore and Josh Ford and the passing of quarterback Tim Tancik, who completed 7-of-9 passes for 133 yards.

Morton came into the game as the leading rusher in 5A with 2,276 yards to his credit. But a stout Mullen defense held the Impala ace to 76 yards on 20 carries as the Mustangs defeated Poudre 48-21.

Mullen improved to 11-2 with the win and will face Centennial League foe Cherry Creek in next Saturday’s championship game against at Invesco Field at Mile High. Poudre ends its season 10-3.

Poudre scored on the opening drive of the game to take a 7-0 lead with 7:27 left in the first quarter on a rare pass of 13 yards from quarterback Jason Haferman to Morton. Mullen quickly countered as the Mustangs fashioned a 64-yard drive, capped by a 25-yard touchdown run by Ameen-Moore with 4:39 left in the quarter.

“Our offense did pretty good, but our defense came out and certainly did well,” said Ameen-Moore, who carried the ball 12 times for 128 yards. “They had that first drive to score, but our guys just tightened up, got the ball for us and we were ready to play.

“But our main focus all week long, was stopping their rush and getting yards against their defense. We heard that they were only allowing 40-yards or so a game all year long so all our running backs were coming in and running hard all game long, for 48 minutes.”

Morton scored again on a 53-yard pass from Haferman with 4:52 remaining in the third quarter. But by then, Mullen was up by a 41-7 margin and fans in the stands were just counting down the minutes.

Helping Mullen gain the big advantage going into halftime were three defensive efforts that led to a trio of Mustangs touchdowns within a 2:25 span in the second quarter.

The first of the three began when Brennan Belloni intercepted Haferman with 10:10 left in the second quarter at the Mullen 14-yard line. That effort set up an 11-play drive that was capped by an Ameen-Moore 11-yard touchdown run with 5:20 left in the quarter and a 21-7 Mustangs lead.

Had Poudre scored on the drive there would have been a possible 14-14 tie. But, it was not to be and the next Impala possession proved to be disastrous from the start.

Morton bobbled the kickoff and was only able to return the ball to the 11-yard line. He ran for 1 yard on the first play, but Haferman was sacked by the Mustang’s Nduka Onyeali, the first of his two sacks, on second down for a 7-yard loss.

On fourth down Mullen’s rush forced the Poudre punter to shank his kick from inside his end zone and the ball traveled to the Poudre 22-yard line. That’s where Belloni scooped it up on one bounce and returned it for a touchdown and a 28-7 Mullen lead.

Disaster continued for Poudre from there.

On the Impalas second play of the ensuing drive, Eric Smith intercepted Haferman at the Poudre 25 and returned the ball for a score with 2:55 left. It proved to be an insurmountable 35-7 Mullen lead at the half.

“Our coaches gave us a good game plan on defense like they always do,” Belloni said. “Coach Jeff Braun does a great job of putting us in the right positions. Going into the game we saw that they didn’t pass that well and that Morton was a great back. We were looking to shut him down and I think we did pretty well.”

Ford had helped Mullen to a 14-7 lead when he scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 23-yard run with 1:57 left in the first quarter. He finished the game with 70 yards on 14 carries.

“The punt, then on the next possession after the interception for a touchdown helped,” said Mullen coach Dave Logan. “Really, I thought Poudre did a good job. There were guys in the secondary who made some big plays and I’m just proud of all of them.

“We have grown up getting better the last four or five weeks when you want to play better. We know the challenge is going to be significant no matter who we play.”

No one was more dejected than Morton of his effort.

“Their defensive line was big and fast, that’s for sure,” Morton said. “They are great team with great lines and they came to play. We tried to change things up a bit for them with our passing, trying something new. It worked a little, we just couldn’t get enough going.”

Like Logan, Poudre coach Steve Bradley was proud of his players’ efforts this season and for their play Saturday.

“Mullen is a good team offensively, there is no question about it and going in we knew they would be physical,” Bradley said. “We made mistakes early to put our defense in bad positions, too. And when the momentum goes against you, that makes it harder to battle those guys up front.

“Two really bad plays at the end of the half, the bad punt and the pick, hurt. This loss was never because our kids didn’t have heart and didn’t play hard. We were here and we deserved to be here and Mullen deserves to be in the championship. They have a good shot.”

• November 27, 2008

  12:42 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Ski2Liv writes:

  CHSAA should be embarrassed by the double standard they've always maintained with Mullen. While kids in 5A public schools aren't even allowed to change high schools for a better opportunity to get into college, without the penalty of sitting out for half a season, Mullen is allowed to recruit Nationally and thenn get to place there "handpicked team" up against public schols who actually have teachers coaching rather than retired Bronco's. An obvious perfect stage for parity - HA! at least CHSAA walletts are getting fatter in the process. Wow, now that's great sportsmanship!