Eagle Valley football falls to Palisade in final home game of the season
The No. 6 Bulldogs' size and speed was on full display in the 43-0 win
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily
Eagle Valley couldn’t have asked for much more momentum, stakes or storylines coming into Thursday’s regular season home finale against Palisade. The Devils entered on a three-game winning streak, the Bulldogs boasted their No. 6 ranking and both teams brought undefeated league records to Gypsum.
“We put ourselves in the best position possible,” said Devils head coach Chris Lake. “We were playing for a league championship tonight. We had a golden opportunity.”
But the Bulldogs were on a mission to prove they were bigger, faster and stronger.
“Honestly, (our focus) was just to dominate,” Easton Embrey said after his team’s 43-0 win. “We were sloppy in the first half, got some things we can work on for next week and get ready for Glenwood. But I thought we dominated in the second half. Came out fine, our offense just picked it up — I thought it was a good game for us overall.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Embrey tore apart the Devils 36 seconds into the second quarter. The agile wide receiver took a toss and cut inside before scampering 70 yards — untouched — to put the Bulldogs on the board. An Eagle Valley punt snap went out the back of the end zone two minutes later and then Dylon Larson closed the half with a 10-yard run to make it 16-0. In the third quarter, Embrey made use of another gigantic hole, taking a halfback toss 60 yards for his second score of the night.
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The senior — who hopes to play baseball in college next year — said the team’s identity all year has centered on size and speed.
“Yeah, pretty much,” he said. “I mean, without my line I wouldn’t be able to do any of these runs, so I give a lot of credit to them.”
At 6-foot-4-inches and 285 pounds, offensive lineman Vincent Johnston anchored a dominant ground game that also paved the way for full-back Cade Carter to rumble into the end zone twice in the third quarter. With 1:30 to go, he tucked in behind Johnston and 250-pound tackle Tobyn Trottier and rammed through the Devils defense until he finally crossed the goal line to make it 36-0.
“We were outmatched, to be honest,” Lake said. “They had size on us, aggression on us. We’ve got to get better — get better in the weight room.”
Palisade’s dominant play in the trenches was obvious on defense, too. Even though Eagle Valley put together a valiant first-quarter drive, wherein Keaden Lake connected with Kitz Petrovski for a pair of 20-plus yard passes, the back-up quarterback — who normally acts as injured starter Colter Blakey’s favorite wide receiver target — was hassled in the pocket all night.
“We just loss on the line of scrimmage,” Chris Lake said. “Couldn’t block for our pass game to start the game and our offensive line just had trouble blocking their big dudes.”
A string of false starts and offensive holding calls against Eagle Valley in the second quarter stalled any legitimate downfield progress.
“It’s just focus,” Keaden Lake said regarding the mental mistakes that also plagued Eagle Valley early. “None of us were scared, I think we just need to lock in more.”
“We knew it would be a hard-fought game and we’d have to do everything right to have a chance to win,” Chris Lake added. “At the end of the day, we just couldn’t quite get there.”
Pinned against their own end zone as the final seconds of the first half ticked away, a Palisade linebacker blitzed up the middle and provided a hard helmet-to-helmet hit on Keaden Lake. The junior wound up getting removed with a concussion, forcing third-string Malachi Barrors to go under center for the first time in a couple seasons. The 5-foot-11 junior was calm and collected, but didn’t have much time to find open receivers either.
“We didn’t have to make huge adjustments,” Chris Lake said regarding the injury-related roster moves. “Obviously, guys had to swap positions a little bit, but we had confidence they could do what they needed there.”
After improving to 7-2 and bolstering their state ranking to fourth in 3A, the Bulldogs will turn their attention to a date with Glenwood Springs next Friday. The No. 13 Demons — who lost to the Devils 28-21 on Oct. 10 — could still win the league if they defeat Steamboat Springs on Saturday and the Bulldogs next week. After taking care of business in Gypsum on Thursday, Embrey offered praise to his opponents.
“This is one of our best league games for sure,” he said. “Definitely one of the better competitions.”
“We just tried to do the best we could and fought hard,” said Keaden Lake, who was forced to watch the second half from the sidelines — though he felt he could have returned.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world,” he continued before reflecting on the growth Eagle Valley has seen this year. “I felt like we’ve improved from last year — did the best we’ve done in a long time — so that’s good.”
Eagle Valley (5-4) will close out the regular season at Hinkley (0-9) on Nov. 8. The Devils are currently 19th in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index, with the top 16 advancing to postseason play. Coach Lake was proud of the steps his program has taken this year as well, but is hungry for more.
“As far as I know, Eagle Valley hasn’t had a chance to be a league champion for 20 years. We’re proud of our kids and proud of our coaching staff for getting us to where we were tonight,” he said. “Obviously we wish we could have done a little bit better tonight.”
“Palisade is a great football program. They’re solid every year, they reload well every year. We just need to get to that point. Get our participation up; we need more numbers out here,” he continued, noting that his squad had just 25 athletes on the varsity roster.
“At the end of a day, it is a game of numbers. We have to have competition in practice as well as on Friday nights. We just need to keep working on that.”
