Arvada West uses takeover game by Noah Meurer to beat Grandview, advance to Class 5A quarterfinals for first time since 2009

ARVADA Noah Meurer Grandview Wolves That was the outcome of Meurer s point total against his opponents on Friday at the North Area Athletic Complex where Arvada West s star wideout safety returner stole to show in the second round of the Class A football playoffs In addition to three receiving TDs Meurer also recovered two fumbles had an interception and moonlighted at tailback as the Wildcats beat Grandview - With the win Arvada West improved to - and advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in years when the Wildcats lost to eventual champion Mullen in the semifinals Total domination by Meurer commented Arvada West head coach CJ Hanna We ve got to put the ball in the best players hands and that s what we did with Noah all night He ll seemingly drive the bus home too Meurer s dominating performance punctuated Arvada West s contemporary dramatic turnaround When the Northern Colorado commit and his fellow seniors were in sixth grade they remember coming to Wildcats games as the scheme turned in an - season If you would ve reported In six years they re going to go - nobody would ve inferred it Meurer noted But we did That s why our youth club the Arvada Regulators committed to mostly staying together to see this through once we got to high school Arvada West s Noah Meurer approaches over Grandview s Javon Q Walker for his second touchdown of the championship on Friday Nov at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada Colo Photo by Timothy Hurst The Denver Post Arvada West controlled the momentum for the majority of the battle but Grandview punched back even as the Wolves were on the ropes Still Grandview head coach Tom Doherty lamented his organization s self-inflicted mistakes that kept Arvada West s lead continuously content I hope that s how we would ve gone out swinging and we did Doherty announced But across the board NFL college high school little league you can t win when you have five turnovers especially against a good band like Arvada West After a scoreless opening quarter Arvada West scored on the first play of the second quarter via Jaxon Pyatt s -yard TD run The extra-point was blocked to make it - Grandview was then driving for a retaliatory result but Atnafe Caleb Harr s strip sack led to Pyatt s fumble recovery The very next snap Eastern Illinois commit Logan Duhachek threw an -yard touchdown pass to Meurer and Arvada West led - following a failed two-point conversion Duhachek saw the other safety come down so he was able to lead me across the field perfectly on a post path Meurer noted Great path great pass great protection The Wildcats added on again late in the first half with another -yard TD run by the Cal commit Pyatt and another failed two-point conversion to extend the outcome to - But the Wolves ultimately had a response after what looked like a botched squib kick set Grandview up to start its drive near midfield QB Blitz McCarty an Idaho commit completed several impressive chunk passes Then he revealed paydirt via a -yard TD pass to Timothy Arnold III with seconds remaining in the half Julian Savaloja caught the two-point conversion cutting the deficit to - In the third quarter Meurer s interception set up his own -yard TD reception a sparse minutes later That came after Arvada West converted a th and to extend the drive and allow the Wildcats to go up - midway through the frame But Grandview didn t quit The Wolves came out in a heavy package for the next possession and a drive featuring all runs resulted in senior Brody Flores latest a -yard TD run The Grandview defensive star making his prep debut at tailback ran through several tackles trucked another defender and then stiff-armed the safety en direction to the end zone to make it - We knew if we kept giving it to Flores one of them would break Doherty declared Arvada West linebacker Blake Cornejo tackles Grandview s Brody Flores on Friday Nov at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada Colo Photo by Timothy Hurst The Denver Post The Wolves defense made several stops from there but Grandview s offense couldn t cash in A Flores fumble near midfield killed one drive then Grandview had to punt on the next By the time the Wolves got the ball back with left and still down the Wolves were getting into desperation mode but they went three-and-out I liked our five-man front Pyatt commented We put a lot of pressure on McCarty all night and didn t give him much time He s a pretty good QB but we made him make rushed decisions Arvada West put the championship on ice the next drive thanks to who else Meurer The senior do-everything reeled in a -yard TD pass with left making - after another missed extra point Grandview couldn t cover Meurer all match amid a rough evening for the young Wolves secondary that featured two sophomore cornerbacks and three junior safeties The Wildcats take on the winner of No Mountain Vista and No Eaglecrest in next week s quarterfinals Arvada West players sing the school fight song after defeating Grandview on Friday Nov at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada Colo Photo by Timothy Hurst The Denver Post