The Rye High School football team used the opening game of the season, on the road at Manitou Springs to exhibit determination and a never say die attitude as they came from a 20-0 deficit in the second quarter to notch a road win 28-20.
The game did not start out well for Rye. A muff on the first kick-off return backed Rye up to their own 15-yard line where after a punt Manitou got an early score.
A penalty on the second kick off return again backed the Thunderbolts into a position allowing Manitou to score as the second quarter began and take the lead 14-0.
It appeared the tide was turning on the third kickoff when Codah Graber took the kick off for a touchdown but a penalty set Rye back to the 40-yard line and ultimately a pass interception, one of two thrown by quarterback Nolan Schauer gave Manitou a 20-0 lead.
With five minutes left in the half, Derick Bak stole a hand off and Rye had the ball on their own 40. Bak and Sophomore Jose Martinez led Rye on defense with nine tackles each. Schauer connected with Graber for a 26-yard touchdown pass and Rye went in at half time down 20-7. Cole Cooper hit the point after attempt on all four touchdowns.
Early in the second half, Taye McCauley intercepted a pass on the Rye 20-yard line and Caleb Hurne punched it in from six yards out. Caleb rushed 15 times for 103 yards for the evening.
Schauer went deep again in the third quarter this time on a 30-yard connection with McCauley to give Rye the lead 21-20 after three quarters.
Schauer threw three touchdown passes and connected on eight of 14 attempts for 148 yards. The balanced Rye attack had 148 yards in the air and 147 yards on the ground.
Schauer’s second touchdown pass was a 35-yard connection to Riley Rochester which put Rye up 28-20.
The defense took over at that point with two redzone stops securing the win.
“It always feels good to start a season 1-0 but we made a lot of mistakes and errors that put us in bad positions, mistakes that we can't get by Salida and our league with,” summarized Head Coach Connor Pigg. “We got away this week but our ball security and special teams need to improve. We had to break some rust off in the first half and we saw far fewer mistakes in the second half.
Against Salida we will need to play two halves like our second half against Manitou. 48 minutes of hard-nosed, responsible football.”
Rye travels to Salida (0-2) for a 7 p.m. game Friday night.