Cowboy gridders end season with loss in second game of Colorado state playoffs

MEEKER I “We got better as the year went on, and we were better at the end, but we were not good enough on Saturday,” Meeker head football coach Shane Phelan said after the hometown Cowboys lost 48-6 to the Resurrection Christian Cougars in Starbuck Stadium.

The defeat ended Meeker’s season while the Cougars will advance to the semifinals against the Paonia Eagles on Saturday.
The Cowboys finished the season with a 7-4 record, second in the Northwest League to the Eagles, and they advanced to the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs for the second year in a row.
Against the Cougars, Meeker could not move the ball on offense and they could not stop the Cougars, as Resurrection Christian scored two touchdowns in the first quarter and started the running clock with a touchdown pass on the last play of the first half, taking a 41-0 lead into the locker room.
“Their team speed caused us some trouble; they had multiple players with really good speed,” coach Phelan said. “They are a really good team.
“We had some opportunities but could not convert on third down, then we didn’t stop them on third down, and it made for a long day,” he said. “We got into a situation we had not been in before, and, once the snowball started, we couldn’t get it stopped.
“The little things make a big difference, and things got away from us quick,” he said.
The Cowboys avoided a shutout when sophomore quarterback Logan Hughes ran the ball into the end zone from five yards out, late in the fourth quarter.
“I’m proud of how they fought all the way to the end,” coach Phelan said. “Our school and community should be proud of them, too, as they kept after it until the very end.”
Coach Phelan was also thankful for the community’s support this season and to the team’s seven seniors.
“We had tons of support this season and a great crowd at the game, making it a fun-small town atmosphere,” coach Phelan said. “I just wish we would have put on a better performance.
“We were also led by a great group of seniors, who put in a lot of hard work the last four years, and they had a lot of success because of their effort,” he said. “Seniors (Kash Atwood, Dillon Frantz, Zachery Medlin, Jacob Nielsen, Conner Pfister, Devon Pontine and T.J. Shelton) all did a lot of great things for our program, and I appreciate each one of them.”