On Friday at All-City Stadium, Denver East delivered the type of win that can change the fortunes of a city program, beating Mullen 23-7 for the Angels’ first fall playoff victory in 15 years.
The Angels’ defense owned the night, with two interceptions that led to 10 points, a pair of fourth-down stops in the redzone and the decisive second-half scoop-and-score that changed the complexion of the game for good.
Denver East junior edge rusher DJ Crowe was an unblockable one-man wrecking crew. His dominance, which included three sacks, three tackles for loss and a safety, set the tone for Denver East’s victory. The Angels won a playoff game during the spring 2020 COVID season, but before that, their last playoff win came in 2008.
“People have got to stop sleeping on the inner-city and Denver East football,” DJ Crowe said. “We got a lot of dawgs here, a lot of kids who stayed home and went to Denver East to make this rebuild happen. We went to work, and came out here and it showed in the second half.”
Crowe and his defensive teammates put a stop to the program’s fall playoff drought as No. 13 Denver East outscored No. 20 Mullen 20-0 in the second half, leaving no doubt and sending the Mustangs packing.
“We’ve been going through adversity as a school, as a community over the past couple years (with shootings at the school),” Denver East head coach Stephen Ruempolhamer said. “We played for the name on the front of the jersey tonight. And we aim to eliminate a lot of pain for our community, because they’re bigger than us.”
Ruempolhamer, in his fourth season as Denver East’s coach, was previously an assistant at Mullen. The Amsterdam native moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, for high school football in 2006, then the defensive tackle played at Iowa State and had a brief stint in the NFL. He said his Angels are “buying in,” hence their 9-2 record this season.
“These guys now know that they are worth competing in the city, with their talent, for the city,” Ruempolhamer said. “This sort of win changes the dynamic for the boys.”
In conjunction with clutch performances from senior defensive linemen MJ Dailey and Elias Goss, Denver East’s dominance in the defensive trenches was more than enough to offset a vanilla performance by the Angels’ offense, whose lone standout on Friday was sophomore kicker Will Beauregard.
Crowe single-handedly wrecked Mullen’s first drive. He sacked Mullen freshman QB Koa Dietrich on the opening play, batted down a pass on second down and then his pressure on third down forced an interception into the arms of Angels senior linebacker Vincent Yarber to set Denver East up at the Mullen 11-yard line.
The Angels cashed in with Beauregard’s 25-yard field goal, and from there, neither offense could find its footing.
Mullen’s time-consuming second drive ended on a failed 4th-and-5 conversion at the Denver East 11-yard line, then the Angels’ offense sputtered due to multiple drops by their wideouts. The Mustangs kept their third drive alive with a converted fake punt pass, only to eventually miss a 32-yard field goal.
But Denver East fumbled the very next play, forcing its gassed defense back on the field. Mullen took advantage, with Dietrich’s eight-yard TD pass to Dartmouth commit Jordan Leslie to give the Mustangs a 7-3 halftime lead.
Mullen tried an onside kick to begin the second half, but the Angels recovered near midfield. Denver East’s offense finally found a rhythm, but ground to a halt inside the five-yard line, when Mullen stuffed them three straight times. The Angels settled for Beauregard’s 24-yard field goal that made it 7-6 with 7:46 left in the third.
Then came the momentum shift.
Dietrich fumbled a shotgun snap and Goss recovered it and rumbled 12 yards to the end zone. After the Angels took a timeout to talk about their two-point play call, senior running back Landen Holloway’s jump pass found — who else? — Crowe for the conversion to put the home team up 14-7 and send the red-clad crowd into a frenzy with 6:40 left in the third quarter.
Crowe then knocked Dietrich out of the game early in the fourth quarter with a crushing blow that was flagged for roughing the passer. Sophomore Blitz McCarty took over the reins at QB and drove the Mustangs into the redzone, but Mullen failed to convert another fourth-down conversion with 8:27 left.
Mullen got the ball, and Dietrich, back with 5:05 to play. But junior safety Elijah West-Duah picked Dietrich off on an ill-advised heave downfield, running it back to the Mustangs’ 26-yard line. Junior running back Sean Campbell then iced the game with a 25-yard TD run.
Crowe, continuing his man-among-boys performance in the final minutes, then tacked on a safety via a sack with 2:31 to play, pushing the score to 23-7 and deflating the Mullen sideline.
“He’s just… special,” Ruempolhamer said of Crowe. “He’s our captain, and with the talent that he has, the sky is the limit for this guy.”
Crowe, who was second in Class 5A with 14.5 sacks as a sophomore last year, led the classification with a dozen sacks and 24.5 tackles for loss entering Friday. The undersized Mullen offensive line was outmatched against Denver East’s duo of Crowe and Dailey, as they drew a handful of holding flags as well.
After Friday’s comeback, Denver East can’t celebrate for too long. The Angels now have the tall task of heading to District 20 Stadium next week for a bout with No. 4 Pine Creek. Denver East fell to Pine Creek 23-0 in Colorado Springs on Sept. 15, but the Angels believe next week can be a different story.
“We’re a whole different team now from then,” MJ Dailey said. “I see (next Friday) as getting our get-back.”
