Football Action Returns to Peetz

The day after the CHSAA rescinded their unpopular stoppage of Fall Sports, the Peetz Pack and the Raymer Renegades met on the gridiron in Peetz Thursday night for the inaugural game of the newly formed Colorado Rural Football League. The 6-man league is comprised of four teams, from Raymer, Peetz, Walden and Briggsdale, and look to expand and continue to play in the Spring despite the reversal by the CSHAA to bring football back to the Fall Sports Schedule. The CHSAA also allowed Field Hockey and Sideline Spirit activities, as they are outdoors, to commence in the fall, however Girls Volleyball and other indoor activities will still use the modified schedule, with Girls Volleyball starting on March 1. The CHSAA is making up a football schedule for the fall season, and hopefully it will be released this week.

Thursday’s independent league game was played in perfect conditions, and was well attended with a large group traveling from the New Raymer area to cheer on the Renegades. During the player introductions, a Renegade player ran down the sidelines with a “Trump 2020” flag, perhaps as a commentary on the unpopularity of Gov. Polis’ decision about Fall Sports, or just an expression during a hotly contested election season. Regardless, the crowd assembled was fired up for football, after missing nearly a month of contests because of Colorado’s COVID-19 policies.

The Raymer team brought a large mix of senior and junior players, and seemed to have a leg up on the Peetz team from the beginning of the contest, completing a long pass for a touchdown on their first possession to go up 8-to-0 after a successful point after attempt. However, the Pack played hard and was able to stay in the game and stop the Renegade’s offense while reeling off a few good plays of their own. There was a bit of sloppiness on both sides of the ball, being the first game of the season, with both teams committing miscues to keep the game close until the Renegades scored again in the last minutes of the second quarter to take a 16-to-0 lead going into the half. The Peetz team was comprised of mostly freshman and younger players, while the Renegades had a significant advantage in size with most of their players being upperclassmen.

The second half had the Renegades breaking through and scoring at will, with Peetz finally cashing in for a score late in the fourth quarter when freshman Noah Naegele completed a 10 yard touchdown pass to freshman Brent Brewer to give the Peetz team its first score of the season. The contest ended in a Renegade victory with a final score of 50-to-6. After the game, Peetz Head Coach Scott Sorensen was pleased just to get out on the field and play some football. “It was great to see the boys on the field and have some football played here in Peetz,” he said. The Pack was able to limit the offense of the Renegades during the first half, but that changed in the second half. “Well, we stopped fooling them,” Sorensen said with a chuckle, adding, “they’re a very good team with good players and they started picking up our blitzes and getting players open.”

Sorensen was thankful for the support from the community that pitched in to help wherever they could, especially financially. He thanked the Lion’s Club which donated $2,500 to help cover the costs of the equipment that needed to be purchased, as the teams are not allowed to use any of their school gear to play.

Sorensen noted the CSHAA Football schedules should be out this week, and said that they anticipate a six game season with eight teams qualifying for the playoffs. He also expects a few more players to come back when the High School season starts, and he also stated that the CRFL intends to play the rest of the schedule in the Spring, with the possibility of more teams joining the league. Peetz intends to play one more game against Walden this Saturday before turning their team back over to the High School schedule. The game against Walden is slated for Saturday Sept. 26 at 1 p.m. in Walden.