It will be the survival of the fittest when the final four top high school football teams face off on Friday to decide the CHSAA  championship game participants. Sticking almost exactly how it was drawn up, the top seedings feature four of the top five-ranked schools in the 5A bracket. No.1 Cherry Creek will continue its historic run, advancing to the final four after a 49-28 victory over No. 8 Fairview at the Stutler Bowl last Saturday afternoon.

Following the defending state champion, No. 1 Cherry Creek Bruins, the No. 2, 3, and 5-seeded teams also made it to the final four on Friday. No. 5 Valor Christian outlasted No. 4 Legend in a close contest, 31-30, at Echo Park to advance to the semifinals. Three of the final four teams are undefeated.

In the other matchup to decide the championship opponents, No. 2 Ralston Valley will face No. 3 Mountain Vista, both teams are undefeated at 12-0. Vista beat No. 6 Arvada West 36-21, last Saturday at Redstone Park. Valley punched their ticket with a victory over No. 10 Mullen, 41-1.

Top-ranked Cherry Creek also remained undefeated on the season at 12-0, after eliminating their latest opponent, Fairview. Both schools had monster wins in the quarterfinal playoff games. Fairview beat Arapahoe 78-28, and Cherry Creek dominated Fountain Fort Carson, 56-0, to get to the final eight.

For Cherry Creek, it wasn’t as easy to beat Fairview in the next round, but it still had great performances on both sides. Senior running back Jayden Fox ran for 258 yards and four touchdowns, on just 12 carries, not counting two touchdowns that were called back due to penalties.

“It’s an absolute blessing to be on his team and be able to hand the ball off to him for these last four years,” said senior quarterback Brady Vodicka. “Every time I hand off to him, it seems like he makes an incredible play. People think he’s small (5-foot-11, 178 pounds) and that he can’t do all of this, but he proves people wrong. He’s got a dog mentality and doesn’t let anything stop him. He’s a fighter.”

Fox originally committed to UCONN but changed his mind and will be headed to UNLV for his freshman year. Vodicka will be headed to Louisiana Tech after finishing his senior year at Cherry Creek.

In his win over Fairview, Vodicka completed 12 of 15 passes for 298 yards and three touchdowns. Two of those touchdowns went to senior wide receiver Max Lovett, who had three catches for 142 yards in the win.

The 5A final four games will be held at separate stadiums, with Cherry Creek hosting at Stutler Stadium at 1:00 PM Saturday. Ralston Valley will host Mountain Vista at NAAC Stadium at 3:00 PM MT. The 5A championship game will be on December 6th, along with the 3A and 4A title games, at CSU’s Canvas Stadium in Ft Collins.

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