H.S. Football: Kadets dominate Indians in opener

Pikes Peak No. 10 Air Academy used its superior speed and size to dominate No. 8 Cheyenne Mountain with a 21-point second half outburst en route to a 27-14 win at Air Academy.

Senior running back Ryan Burton led the Kadets (1-1, 1-0 4A Foothills) with 94 yards rushing, including a touchdown. He also hauled in a 40-yard TD pass from Air Academy quarterback Josh Tizzard to make it 21-0. Tizzard threw for 178 yards and three touchdowns.

"We called the perfect play on that pass, and we got a huge touchdown out of it," Tizzard said. "It was wide open and I knew Ryan would catch it."

The game turned in Air Academy's favor late in the first half and early in the third quarter.

The Kadets struck first after Air Academy's Alex May intercepted a Pete Perdue pass at the Indian 40. Tizzard later threw to Jason Goins for an 18-yard touchdown and a 6-0 halftime lead after a botched PAT kick.

Air Academy took the opening kickoff of the second half and dominated the Indians up front with a punishing six-play, 87-yard drive that resulted in a 6-yard Burton touchdown run to make it 14-0 after a successful conversion run by Burton.

"We weren't content going into halftime and we felt we could play much better," Burton said. "We wanted to come out and take it to them and that's what we did."

After another Indian punt, the Kadets went 80 yards in 2:37 after Tizzard hit Burton on a 40-yard touchdown pass on fourth down to blow the game open at 21-0 with 3 minutes left in the third quarter.

The Indians (1-1, 0-1) had many chances in the first half, including marching inside the Kadets' 20 twice, but couldn't score.

Cheyenne Mountain missed a field goal on one drive and fumbled at the Air Academy 14 on the other.

The Indians' only bright spots were a 75-yard Perdue touchdown run in the fourth quarter that made the score 21-7, and a 90-yard TD kickoff return by Nick Frachiseur for the final margin.

"We were very inconsistent on both sides of the ball tonight," Indians coach Chris Roberts said. "Air Academy is a tough team and they mashed it down our throats in the second half."

Air Academy's offense sputtered for much of the first half, with only a handful of first downs as drives stalled on Cheyenne Mountain's side of the field.

But things changed in the second half.

"We came together at halftime and decided we wanted to play better as a team," Tizzard said. "After an ugly game (a 37-7 loss to Pine Creek) last week we wanted to prove we were a good football team."