The Classical Academy served notice to the rest of the Class 2A football playoff field that the Titans will be a state championship contender.
The Titans' offensive line dominated the Manitou Springs defense and the hosts overpowered the Mustangs 59-34 Friday night behind 225 yards rushing for senior Austin Weingart, who broke loose for two long-range touchdowns, not including a 45-yard rumble called back on a holding penalty.
"Those guys are going to be a team to contend with in the playoffs," Mustangs coach Cory Archuleta said after Manitou Springs (6-3, 2-3 2A Tri-Peaks) fell short. "Their line pushed us around."
"It all starts with the linemen," Weingart said. "Our interior linemen opened up holes and we had good blocking downfield. It was just a matter of making the cut."
Mustangs quarterback Cole Sienknecht did his best to keep the Mustangs in the game with a career-high five TD passes on 252 yards passing, including three strikes to senior Lucas Rodholm and two to senior Josh Shaw. He entered with only seven touchdown passes.
The nimble junior did a great job of evading the TCA pass rush and creating time for his receivers to get open. Injuries and suspensions to seven Manitou Springs players forced the Mustangs to adopt a pass-happy approach in hopes of limiting Sienknecht's carries (30).
"We didn't want him making 40 carries against all those big TCA players and him getting hurt," Archuleta said. "Hopefully a few of the guys will come back and we will have a new wrinkle to prepare for if we manage to sneak into the playoffs."
Manitou Springs was rated 10th in RPI, which determined entry into next weekend's 16-team state playoffs. TCA was rated fifth and was assured of the postseason entering the game.
But the Manitou Springs defense was unable to slow down the potent Titans, who answered three first-half Mustang touchdowns with one of their own while taking only a combined 110 seconds - the longest took only 1:02.
Weingart broke loose for scoring runs of 32 and 46 yards while quarterback Cade Bethany ripped off a 30-yard bob-and-weave into the Manitou end zone to keep the hosts comfortably ahead.
Manitou Springs had its chance to get back into it after a TCA fumble gave them the ball on their own 43, trailing 45-34 with 9:17 left. But TCA senior Sawyer Weeks intercepted an overthrow by Sienknecht - one of his few mistakes - 53 seconds later to seal the win in the teams' regular-season finale.
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