Welcome to the title fight: No. 1 Pomona (12-1) against No. 3 Valor Christian (10-3), at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Mile High.
It’s the sixth showdown in three years between the two elite programs—Valor Christian holds a 3-2 advantage in that time frame, including a 2-0 record in the playoffs—and if the last couple of meetings are any indication, fans are in for some fireworks.
Pomona, still seething from last season’s nail-biting 29-26 championship loss, played with a chip on its shoulder all season and owns a victory over Valor Christian, 23-16, in Week 4.
But the Eagles are the defending champions and feature a prolific quarterback in senior Dylan McCaffrey and the heavy weight of history on their side. It’s Valor Christian’s eighth consecutive title game appearance. The Eagles are an almost unfathomable 34-1 all-time in the playoffs.
Both teams overcame adversity throughout their march to Mile High—and will have to do so again on Saturday to win.
Pomona lost its star lineman, Jake Moretti, to a preseason knee injury and didn’t flinch. The Panthers dropped an early-season out-of-state game to Glynn Academy (Brunswick, Ga.) before reeling off 11 consecutive victories. And most recently, star running backs Max Borghi and Cam Gonzales went down with season-ending injuries in consecutive playoff games, leaving quarterback Ryan Marquez and Pomona having to improvise on offense.
Valor Christian, meanwhile, started the season 1-3, a stretch that included decisive losses to Saguaro (Scottsdale, Ariz.) on national television and to Mullen. Those who wrote off the Eagles and said they lost too much talent to graduation were proved wrong, as coach Rod Sherman’s squad knocked off other title-worthy programs in Grandview and Cherry Creek in back-to-back weeks to make the championship game.
But Valor Christian will need to get its high-powered offense clicking again after tying a season-low with 10 points in its last-second semifinal victory over Cherry Creek. The Bruins limited McCaffrey and his arsenal of sophomore running back Joshia Davis, sophomore wideout Luke McCaffrey and senior wideout Jack Walley.
Valor’s defense has been outstanding, led by senior defensive tackle Noah Elliss, senior defensive end Will Rodgers and senior linebacker Christian Elliss. Senior safety Uriah Vigil and senior linebacker Garrett Zanon lead a formidable Pomona defense.
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE
3A: No. 2 Pueblo East (12-1) vs. No. 1 Discovery Canyon (13-0), 1 p.m., District 20 Stadium
4A: No. 5 Broomfield (11-2) vs. No. 3 Pine Creek (11-2), 11 a.m. Mile High
5A: No. 1 Pomona (12-1) vs. No. 3 Valor Christian (10-3), 2:30 p.m. Mile High
WHERE TO WATCH
Unlike in years past, the 4A and 5A championship games will not be televised.
Instead, the 3A, 4A and 5A title games will only be live streamed by the NFHS Network, which purchased the rights to all of CHSAA’s postseason games in every sport. Access to the NFHS Network games is subscription-based at $10/month.
The reason for no TV? Money, said CHSAA commissioner Paul Angelico. He said the association made a good-faith effort to get a network to carry the broadcast, but that it simply couldn’t afford the price tag local networks were asking to do the two games.
“The reality is, we can’t generate enough viewership to make it worthwhile for a television network to broadcast it,” Angelico said. “In previous seasons, our third party intermediary, the NFHS network, worked out that deal with the network for us.
“The bottom line is, it comes down to having a network wanting to, and be willing to, take a risk on what it costs to broadcast the games.”
For its part, Altitude, which broadcasted last season’s 4A and 5A title games and broadcasted eight games during the regular season, wanted to do Championship Saturday again this season. But as Altitude Sports’ Senior Vice-President of Production and Programming Ken Miller explained, the NFHS Network was charging a rights fee to the title games for the first time this year.
There’s a $500 fee to broadcast high school sporting events during the regular season, but that money goes directly to the home school. Miller said the rights fee the NFHS Network wanted for Saturday’s games was significantly higher than that, and made doing the broadcast cost prohibitive.
“In the past, there had not been a rights fee associated with it,” Ken Miller said. “For us to do the games there’s a significant cost in broadcasting football, and broadcasting any sport. We were doing it in a break-even type of deal, but this year with the rights fee we would have gone significantly in the red to do the games.”
– Kyle Newman, The Denver Post
