10-win Wizards: Windsor football pulls away from Ponderosa to reach 4A quarterfinals
This Windsor football team is playing its best brand of football at the right time: in November.
And it's also starting to resemble the early-2010s Windsor squads that were regularly in state championship contention.
No. 11 Windsor jumped out to an early lead and held off a midgame rally to handily beat No. 6 Ponderosa 38-21 in the Class 4A second round on Friday night at Echo Park Stadium in Parker.
The win moves Windsor to 10-2. That's as many victories as the past two years combined and the program's first double-digit win campaign since the 2015 state championship squad.
"The success comes down to our consistency," said Windsor coach Chris Jones. "These players understand if you buy in to what we’re doing, we’ve got a great shot."
Senior star Mikey Munn had another huge game.
He returned another kick for a touchdown, ran for two scores and tossed a TD pass to Kale Frederick in a four-score virtuoso performance.
Munn, mostly a defensive standout the past two seasons, has become a lethal weapon everywhere. He's now accounted for 17 touchdowns this season: 10 rushing, two passing, two pick-sixes and three kick returns.
"We’ve just expanded his role," Jones said. "It opens running lanes for everybody else. He’s a lethal guy everywhere — back on kicks, on offense and then he protects our secondary from deep throws."
It went well beyond Munn in a focused all-around effort. The Wizards forced five turnovers, had that special teams score and forced another turnover on special teams, plus had 14 points off those takeaways.
Rylen Renton grabbed an interception and Landon Scruggs picked a pass off late to seal Windsor's first road playoff win since 2016.
The defense was relentless, sacking Ponderosa quarterbacks six times and holding a Mustangs offense that came in averaging 32.2 points per game well below that.
"We showed a lot of bluffs early and then really let our guys loose on blitzes in the second half," Jones said.
There was a brief moment when Ponderosa threatened.
Windsor had jumped out to a 14-0 and 21-7 leads, but Ponderosa tied things up at 21-all midway through the third quarter. The home crowd was suddenly rocking.
The momentum was short-lived, as the Wizards got two more scores and a Gavyn Helm field goal while forcing two late turnovers to score the game's final 17 points.
"We just told our guys there are setbacks in life, but the comeback is stronger," Jones said. "We didn’t put a lot of emotion or energy into it, just kept ourselves as level as possible.
"I’m glad we kept the hammer down."
More: Northern Colorado high school football scores, schedule, standings for the 2023 season
There are still things to iron out, of course. Windsor didn't convert touchdowns on multiple red-zone possessions and had another score called back by penalty.
But the Wizards are playing like they belong among the state's best, riding a seven-game win streak into the 4A quarterfinals against the winner of No. 3 Montrose and No. 14 Pueblo West (Saturday, 1 p.m.).
"This is a really blue-collar group that enjoys playing for each other," Jones said.
"We did what we could in the last 24 minutes tonight to get another 168 hours together, and we're already excited for what lies ahead next week."
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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado football playoffs: Windsor beats Ponderosa to reach 4A quarterfinals
