TAKING REINSOUTDOORS 8C

Steamboat Pilot &Today | Section C

Sunday SportsSunday, November 11, 2007 • www.steamboatpilot.com

Sports Editor: John F. Russell • 871-4209/jrussell@steamboatpilot.com

TAKING REINSOUTDOORS8

Charles BrickerSOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.

This being the midway point of the season, I usu-ally like to give you a series of bests — best offensive player, best defensive play-er, best coach, best cinema-tography by someone steal-ing defensive signals on an NFL sideline.

Let’s do something dif-ferent this year. It’s a team sport, so let’s concentrate on group play rather than individuals, beginning with the best combination of two receivers, tight ends allowed.

That would be, no sur-prise, Randy Moss and Wes Welker of the Patriots, who have combined for 117 catches, 1,575 yards and 19 touchdowns.

There are other great receiving combinations out there, notably Dallas’ Terrell Owens/Jason Witten and Green Bay’s Donald Driver/Greg Jennings. But Moss (914) could surpass Jerry Rice’s single season record of 1,848 yards in the 1995 season, and Welker (61) seems certain to break 100 receptions.

Best offensive line (run-blocking): Left to right for the Vikings: Ryan Cook, Artis Hicks, Matt Birk, Steve Hutchinson and Bryant McKinnie. Everyone stacks against Adrian Peterson because Minnesota has no passing game, and they still splatter defensive linemen.

Best offensive line (pass protection): Left to right for the Packers: Mark Tauscher, Jason Spitz, Scott Wells, Daryn Colledge and Chad Clifton. It’s amaz-ing Brett Favre hasn’t been sacked more than 13 times, because he has no running game.

Best defensive line (vs. the run): Left to right for the Ravens: Dwan Edwards, Kelly Gregg, Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs creeping up from his linebacking spot.

Best defensive line (vs. the pass): Left to right for the Giants: Michael Strahan, Kawika Mitchell, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora — four defen-sive ends.

Best linebackers: The blitz-crazed Steelers, who not only have old stand-bys James Farrior, Clark Haggans and Larry Foote (a combined 25 seasons), but the younger James Harrison, who is on the precipice of stardom.

Best safeties: Sean Taylor and rookie LaRon Landry of the Redskins. Taylor has five interceptions, and together they’re a major reason Washington has reduced the run yardage of its opponents from 137.3 to 95.0 this year.

Best corners (with nickel back): The 9-0 Patriots with Asante Samuel, Ellis Hobbs and Randall Gay. The Pats’ pass defense is giving up 184.7 yards a game. That’s already low, but no club has faced more pass attempts (65 percent passes to 35 percent runs).

I’ve decided against the best combination of run-ners because the concept of using two backs about equally has been largely flushed along with the 2006 season. You have one back who can give you 20 to 25 carries? Stay with him.

Time to recognize

group play

SPORTSCOMMENTARY

PAGE DESIGNED BY AMANDA FUERTE

Luke GrahamPILOT & TODAY STAFF

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

It was a decision Will Zimmerer almost regretted.

As wide-eyed freshman trying to make his mark on a program, Zimmerer — a Steamboat Springs High School graduate — walked into an established Mesa State College football program in 2003.

That year, the Mavericks went 10-2, won the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and hosted a Division II playoff game.

Believing things would always be like they were in 2003, Zimmerer decided not to get fit for a conference championship ring.

“I wanted to play and earn one myself,”

Zimmerer, now a redshirt senior, said Wednesday while preparing for New Mexico Highlands. “That was my approach and the decision I made. I don’t necessarily think it’s wrong or necessarily it was right.”

At first, the decision seemed completely wrong.

Zimmerer saw his first action the next year, when the Mavericks struggled through a winless season.

“After 0-11,” Zimmerer said, “I wasn’t sure I could play.”

But after fighting though a five-win sea-son as a sophomore and a four-win season as a junior, Zimmerer is right where he wants to be — working his way toward a

Former Sailors help Mesa State to 9-1 record

Alumni seek title ringS T E A M B O A T A L U M N I

Playoff football is all about making big plays.

Saturday in Fort Collins, Fossil Ridge simply made more big plays than Steamboat Springs — and that was the difference in the game.

The SabreCats used three touchdown plays of more than 40 yards to drop the Sailors, 20-13, and advance into the Class 3A quarterfinals against Pueblo County.

“That was a great high school football game,” Steamboat coach Aaron Finch said after the final whistle blew. “Everything on the line, both teams making big plays, both teams fighting back and forth, both teams stum-

bling a little bit at times. ... That’s playoff football.”

Fossil Ridge, making it’s first play-off experience in school history, showed exactly why the team won eight straight games coming into Saturday’s showdown.

Running out of the double-wing offense, the SabreCats ate at the clock and took what the Sailors’ defense gave them.

Three times, that meant big plays. The first came on Fossil Ridge’s second

drive of the game. Junior Mike Lamb took a pitch around the right side for a 46-yard score and a 6-0 lead.

Then, twice, SabreCats quarterback Brian Leistikow made plays when his team needed them.

Leistikow gave Fossil Ridge a 13-6 lead with a 71-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

And with less than a minute to play, the junior broke a 13-13 tie with his first completion of the game, a 41-yard strike to Landon Ochwat on a fourth-and-two play.

FILE PHOTOS

Former Sailors Westin Cofer, from left, Zack Savage and Will Zimmerer shine on an estab-lished Mesa State College football team this year. The Mavericks have their eyes set on the Division II playoffs, holding the sixth spot in the Southwest region.

R.P. “FESTUS” HAGINS/COURTESY

Running back Coy Letlow, No. 5, rushes Saturday to lift the No. 5 Hayden Tigers to a 14-12 upset victory against No. 4 Byers to advance to a state semifinal game, Saturday in Hayden against No. 1 seed-Akron.

Dave ShivelyPILOT & TODAY STAFF

BYERS

It would have a been great day to rob a house in Hayden.

Hundreds of the Tigers’ foot-ball faithful trav-eled 225 miles east and packed the visitors side -lines of the Byers Bulldogs’ field on a hot and windless Sat-

urday, matching, if not out-numbering, the home fans and

the volume of cheers.But it was the Hayden squad

on the field that dug deep to shut down the Byers offense and rob the Bulldogs of their hopes of a first trip to the Class 1A state semifinals. With a combi-nation of a stingy defense that thwarted seven drives and two key conversion attempts, its most balanced offensive effort of the year, and a handful of huge plays from its senior team leaders, No. 5 Hayden upset No. 4 Byers, 14-12.

The win earns Hayden a home semifinal game, time to-be-determined on Saturday, against No. 1 Akron, which defeated No. 9 Peyton, 39-9.

It wasn’t until Hayden senior lineman Dusty Parrott stepped onto the field for the first series of downs that he realized just how outsized the Tigers were. The Bulldogs starting O-line outweighed the Tigers’ by an average of 45 pounds.

But that was also when he realized what needed to be done.

Tigers football digs for upset win, advances to semifinals

Iron Hayden

See Hayden, page 3C

See Alumni, page 3C

PREP FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS

SATURDAY’S GAME:

Tigers 14Bulldogs 12

Last-minute lossSteamboat drops

first-round playoff game to Fossil Ridge

STORY BY LUKE GRAHAM

SUNDAYFOCUS

MICHAEL G. SEAMANS/COURTESY

Steamboat Springs High School wide receiver Jack Spady, No. 89, stumbles after being tripped up by the Fossil Ridge High School secondary at French Field in Fort Collins on Saturday. The Sailors lost to the SabreCats, 20-13, ending their postseason run.See Steamboat, page 3C