As Halloween passes and winter approaches, the 2015 Highlands Ranch High School football season is written into the record books. So, before HR enters the month long wait to the basketball season, let’s just see what happened, and how this year will be remembered.

  For a start, the Falcons had 3 wins, 6 losses. Those wins were against Pueblo Centennial High School 14-13, and rival schools Rock Canyon High School 37-16,  and ThunderRidge High School 21-19. While they lost more than they won, they beat RCHS, the biggest rival to HR, compared to last year, where they lost to them in both football and basketball.

  Ranch has also had to go to great lengths to play: once traveling by bus 4 hours to play Fruita High School in the mountain town of Fruita, almost to the Utah border, leaving not even halfway into the school day, and also traveling an hour and a half south to Pueblo to play Centennial. Head Coach Robinson said, “I am very proud of how hard these players have worked.  The seniors provided leadership and have shown the underclassmen the type of work they have to do in order to be successful.”

  Luckily for them, they were able to beat big-time rival, Rock Canyon, but their third to last game was slightly surrounded by controversy, as they were accused of cheating. According to 7News Denver, the Falcons used a headset to talk to the head coach beyond the 9 yards closest to the sideline, but reported themselves after discovering they were breaking the rules of the pastime. According to Principal Chris Page in an interview with 7News, “Our coach is well versed in the rules, we just happened to miss that part of the electronics rule.” He believes the students and coaches did not knowingly cheat and the team holds themselves accountable.

  While the coach was suspended from the October 30th game, the TRHS game was not forfeited by CHSAA. However, the Falcons did forfeit their 3 wins this season on their own, making the record go 0-9 for 2015 and ruining their chances of playoffs for the 5A class. However, on November 5th, they will be playing a Neutral Playoff game vs. Mountain Range High School.

  While finishing the season with a 0-9 record, many still support the Falcons and hope for a better time in the fall of 2016.

John Boughey, Staff Reporter