Football: Erie blows past Monarch

Oct. 5—LAFAYETTE — It's The Blake Barnett Show each and every week in the fall in Colorado. Not even the toughest opponents can take him — or his Erie Tigers — down.

Not within confines of the Centennial State, anyway.

On Thursday night at Spangenberg Field, the Class 4A second-ranked Tigers cruised to victory over host Monarch, dominating the Coyotes from start to finish in a 45-3 decision. Barnett, who sits seven touchdowns away from tying Christian McCaffrey's Colorado prep career TD record, had a hand in four of those scores with 150 passing yards through just 27 minutes.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that he has a strong offense to back him up.

Junior running back Gavin Lusk played a key role, accumulating 93 yards and two touchdowns before exiting in the second quarter with a hyperextended elbow. Senior Kaveh Meredith added another 69 yards and a touchdown on a single play.

"It's amazing. It's a full offense," Lusk said. "It's not like there's one player running it, even though Blake's D-I. It's not just him. Everybody on the team is working together. That's what's so good about our football team."

The Tigers improved to 6-1 and have yet to fall to any Colorado opponent. Their first and only setback came out of a trip to Florida. Monarch fell to 4-3 after beginning its season 4-0, marking a stark improvement from a 5-6 record a season earlier.

Monarch junior quarterback Riley Montemayor finished his night with 88 passing yards. Senior wide receiver Owen Mellish led the rest of the offense with 60 yards on just three touches, but it was senior Brody Gray who carried the ball the most for 37 total yards.

He's been thrilled to see what his team's been able to accomplish in the second year with Aaron Paddock at the helm of the team.

"We modernized, and our skill players are very good. We're utilizing them really well," Gray said. "We've been taking shots with our receivers. Our receivers are really great deep ball receivers, so it's been really good to have them on like third-and-longs, fourth-and-longs, when we really need to convert. We can just put it up there for them."

Barnett opened his night in the most Barnett way possible, as he tossed the ball 69 yards to Meredith to blow the game wide open early into the first quarter. Eighty-five seconds later, he handed the ball off to Lusk, who sprinted another 50 past the pylon.

A fumble on a later punt put Monarch's offense on Erie's 30-yard line, but the Coyotes could only manage a 33-yard field goal off the cleats of senior Leif Anderson. Erie led 15-3 toward the end of the first quarter, but the Tigers quickly ran up the score in the second.

Lusk claimed another touchdown, this time from 41 yards out. Barnett scored twice more before halftime broke, once by a short run and another on a 33-yard pass to senior Preston Terranova.

Much like each of its scores in the first 24 minutes, Erie's 38-3 lead at the break didn't last long.

Barnett added one more touchdown to his resume for the night on a 20-yard beauty to senior wide receiver Alex Sweeney, then Ronin Ward stepped into the pocket. That was all she wrote after that.

"The goal is that you're trying to get better every week and we're really trying to emphasize that and try not to have names on the opponents. It's more us and just improving from week to week," Erie head coach Jeff Giger said. "Monarch's a darn good team. They were 4-0 and they lost a quarterback. I think they're starting to get back on it. ... That helps, knowing that you're still playing quality opponents. We've, in the past, had trouble with these teams. Longmont has a darn good team."

Erie heads back home to take on Silver Creek next Thursday and will face off with Longmont a week after that. Monarch, meanwhile, will take the first crack at Longmont next Friday.

Paddock hopes his team will continue to grow, even in the face of defeat, as the Coyotes prepare for their final three contests of the regular season.

"I think it's collective," Paddock said. "The kids have ownership because they've worked really hard. It's not just me. It's our staff. It's our administration. It's our support staff. And the kids, they want to be great. At the end of the day, they want to be great and they're willing to do whatever it takes to keep building towards that."