‘We just love to hit people’ Cedaredge Football looks to bring physicality this season

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - The summer heat on the Western Slope has served as an early test for this year’s Cedaredge Bruins team, getting them ready to line up against their first opponent.

“We’re so ready to hit someone. We’re ready for Cortez. Like the weather, it’s been hot, but we’ve been powering through it. We have a great team, depth, and we’re just ready to win,” Shane Allen Smothers said.

“We’re so ready to just get out there and hit somebody new. I mean, we had our scrimmage a couple weeks back and that went pretty well, but we wanted to count for real this time and not just be a scrimmage,” Logan Sanders said.

That readiness is built off a specific brand of football. The Bruins look to bring the heat in their own way.

“Every year we chase what we call goose eggs. That’s just a zero for the other team. Last year I think we had four of them and defense is very, we’re very fundamental and very based on that because our offense is really strong already. So we focus on defense and it is a lot of fun to go and smash someone that isn’t your own teammate,” Cole Wyatt said.

“I think it comes a lot from just our town too, because a lot of kids were growing up and we’re just working, being on farms and things out here. It’s just more physical things and it comes to the football field as well. We want to come play football and especially not having a whole lot of kids, pretty short numbers, you have to be physical to make each other better. So I think that’s a big point,” Sanders said.

“Honestly, we just love to hit people,” Allen Smothers said.

It’s a team looking to set the tone on their own on the gridiron as the Bruins look to ruin other teams’ aspirations for chasing down a state title.

“Coach Brandon Milholland has been saying one of 11. So every one guy has to do their job and everybody, if they do their job, we’re going to be successful. We’re going to hit and we’re going to win,” Allen Smothers said.

“I think we’re much more consistent this year. We might not have as many like big plays, but I think we’re way more consistent. Just we’re going to drive the ball. We’re going to do what we do best and it’s going to work, play smash mouth football and just, I mean, like the tortoise and the hare, we’re just going to keep moving a little bit at a time, not just consistency,” Sanders said.

While the players provide the hits, the town provides the heart. Friday nights own the town in Cedaredge, and the players know exactly who’s sitting in those stands.

“When we see everybody come from all around, from Austin all the way up to the Mesa, when we see all the familiar faces that we see in the stores and the gas station, it means a lot to us boys because they’ve helped fundraise, helped buy this equipment that we’re wearing,” Cole Wyatt said.

“Yeah, it’s really special to have the whole town come out, especially for the first one and just having everybody out here. You get that first game jitters out of the way, and it’s just it’s a really special thing,” Logan Sanders said.

The Bruins host Montezuma-Cortez Friday, kicking off at 7:00p.m.