Senior receiver earns DSM Player of the Game honors as Bruins overcome third-quarter deficit for 28-15 season-opening win
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — Cherry Creek needed somebody to settle things down Thursday night.
The two-time defending Class 5A state champions were breaking in a new quarterback, replacing a large senior class and getting everything Chatfield could throw at them in the 2026 season opener at Jeffco Stadium.
Senior wide receiver Alijah Landrum-Hamilton became the steadying presence.
Landrum-Hamilton hauled in catch after catch, consistently giving junior quarterback Bentley Unruh somewhere to go with the football. He also came down with a spectacular deep ball during a night in which Cherry Creek’s passing attack leaned heavily in his direction.
His performance earned him Denver Sports Media Player of the Game honors as Cherry Creek survived a legitimate upset bid from Chatfield, rallied from a third-quarter deficit and opened the season with a 28-15 victory in the DSM Game of the Week.
“I already knew it was time to go,” Landrum-Hamilton said of being a major part of the offensive plan. “So I got to make the catches and do what I got to do.”
For much of the night, that was exactly what Cherry Creek needed from him.
Landrum-Hamilton becomes Unruh’s go-to target
Unruh entered Thursday facing a different kind of pressure.
The junior transferred from Valor Christian during the offseason and was making his first start behind center for one of Colorado’s most recognizable high school football programs.
He admitted afterward that the nerves were there.
“I was nervous going into the whole day,” Unruh said. “But I just stepped on the field and I was confident in what I can do, and we found a way to win. It was pretty rough, but like Coach Logan says, good teams find ways to win.”
Having Landrum-Hamilton on the outside helped.
Cherry Creek repeatedly looked toward its senior receiver when it needed something through the air, and Landrum-Hamilton delivered with a collection of catches that included one of the game’s most impressive plays — a spectacular deep-ball reception down the field.
It wasn’t an accident that the football kept finding him.
Landrum-Hamilton said getting him involved was already a significant part of Cherry Creek’s game plan.
When head coach Dave Logan gave him the opportunity to make a play downfield, the message was simple.
“He just said, ‘Go make a play,’ and I did,” Landrum-Hamilton said.
That connection gave Cherry Creek some much-needed explosiveness on a night when very little came easily.
Barnes gives Creek an early spark
The Bruins’ first touchdown of the season didn’t come from the offense.
Junior linebacker Jeriah Barnes recognized a mishandled read-option exchange by Chatfield, scooped up the loose football and returned it for a touchdown.
It was the first high school touchdown of Barnes’ career.
“The quarterback looked like he was doing a read option. He dropped the ball. I had to pick it up and go score,” Barnes said. “It was my first touchdown, my first high school touchdown. It just felt great.”
The defensive score gave Cherry Creek an early advantage, but Chatfield refused to let the game get away.
Quarterback Cash Williams and the Chargers answered, eventually tying the game before Cherry Creek regained a 14-7 advantage heading into halftime.
But any expectation that the Bruins would simply pull away after the break disappeared quickly.
Chatfield flips the game
The turning point for Chatfield started with one of Cherry Creek’s biggest mistakes of the night.
A bad snap on a punt sailed over the punter’s head and toward the end zone. With Chatfield closing in, the punter kicked the football out of the back of the end zone, resulting in a safety.
Suddenly, Cherry Creek’s lead was down to 14-9.
Then Chatfield reached into the trick-play section of the playbook.
Junior wide receiver Devon Fleming took a reverse, pulled up and threw back across the field to Williams.
The quarterback became the receiver.
Williams caught the pass near the goal line and finished the 9-yard touchdown play, giving Chatfield a 15-14 lead in the third quarter.
For several minutes at Jeffco Stadium, the state’s two-time defending 5A champions were behind.
That was when Cherry Creek’s response became the story.
Creek’s leaders pull the team together
Senior safety Karson McKenzie said the Bruins had to keep each other from allowing the mistakes and momentum swings to compound.
“We just had to find a way to win,” McKenzie said. “We came together as a team. We had to encourage each other throughout the game, and I feel like that’s what helped us win here. We made big plays on both sides of the ball.”
The narrow margin might surprise anyone accustomed to seeing Cherry Creek dominate opponents.
McKenzie viewed it differently.
“They probably won’t think we’re that good, for sure,” he said when asked what people might think after seeing the final score. “But there ain’t nothing down about us. We’re just figuring ourselves out right now. We got our identity now, and we can just play with that.”
That word — identity — came up repeatedly after the game.
Senior offensive lineman Jackson Roper said the Bruins had to decide what kind of team they were going to be once things stopped going according to plan.
“I kept telling the team, ‘Who are we going to be?’ Especially on the offensive line,” Roper said. “What is our identity? Are we going to get shut down because things aren’t going well, or are we going to come back and ball out? And that’s what we did.”
Defense turns momentum back
Cherry Creek’s defense made sure Chatfield’s lead didn’t last.
After the Chargers moved the football beyond midfield late in the third quarter, the Bruins came up with a key interception.
That turnover gave the offense another opportunity.
This time, Cherry Creek started leaning on what eventually became its answer.
The run game.
Junior running back Elijah Cromwell powered the football into the end zone from the goal line, putting Cherry Creek back in front 21-15.
From there, the Bruins’ defense continued shutting the door.
Chatfield was forced to punt on its next possession, allowing Creek to take control of the game with another sustained drive.
Unruh said the decision to emphasize the run wasn’t complicated.
“Running the ball really started working,” Unruh said. “With all the turnovers that we had — I had, throwing the ball especially down by the goal line — we just really started prioritizing running the ball.”
The offensive line embraced the change.
Roper said Cherry Creek’s ability to regroup on the sideline and adjust throughout the game was one of the differences.
“The biggest adjustments for us was just knowing who we were,” Roper said. “Obviously there’s the tech adjustments, what we’re doing, spreading out guys, different things that we got to do fundamentally. But really just, who are we going to be?”
Unruh finishes it with his legs
Cherry Creek eventually put the game away with its quarterback contributing to the same ground attack that had turned momentum.
Unruh faked the handoff, kept the football and raced around the right side for an 11-yard touchdown.
The score extended Cherry Creek’s lead to 28-15 and finally gave the Bruins some breathing room.
It wasn’t a spotless debut for Unruh.
It didn’t have to be.
He made mistakes, kept playing and ultimately helped Cherry Creek finish the game.
Landrum-Hamilton came away impressed with the way his new quarterback handled his first night leading the offense.
“I think Bentley did a great job for his first time,” Landrum-Hamilton said. “It’s a lot of pressure on him. And the whole team, honestly, a couple of our dudes went down, so I just knew he stepped up and we just made plays. We’ll get back to it and get better.”
DSM Player of the Game: Alijah Landrum-Hamilton
Cherry Creek ultimately won the game by leaning on its defense and rushing attack late.
But before the Bruins were able to take control, Landrum-Hamilton kept giving the offense life.
He was Unruh’s most reliable target throughout the night, repeatedly finding openings, making catches in traffic and creating opportunities downfield.
The signature moment was the deep ball.
With Unruh giving his receiver a chance, Landrum-Hamilton tracked the football and came down with a spectacular catch, showing why Cherry Creek was comfortable making him such a significant part of the opening-night game plan.
Even after receiving DSM Player of the Game honors, Landrum-Hamilton wasn’t interested in pretending his performance was flawless.
He immediately pointed toward things he could improve.
“I feel good,” Landrum-Hamilton said. “Honestly, it could have been a lot better.”
That response fit the rest of Cherry Creek’s night.
Good enough to win.
Not nearly good enough to satisfy them.
The champion gets tested immediately
Cherry Creek enters 2026 as the two-time defending 5A champion, but this isn’t the same roster that finished last season.
There are new players in major roles.
There’s a new starting quarterback.
And Thursday offered the Bruins something they probably couldn’t replicate in a preseason practice: genuine pressure.
They made mistakes.
They gave away points on special teams.
They turned the football over.
They fell behind in the second half.
Chatfield had every reason to believe it could finish the upset.
Then Creek’s defense created opportunities, its offensive line helped establish the run, Cromwell found the end zone, Unruh used his legs to finish the job and Landrum-Hamilton provided the consistent playmaking the passing game needed throughout the night.
Roper said the leadership of the team mattered most when things became uncomfortable.
“We said on the sideline, ‘Hey, we win games. This is what we do,’” Roper said. “That’s what Creek’s done so long before I’ve been there. It’s just an identity that we have. And I feel like that pushes us to be the best version of ourselves late in games.”
Cherry Creek wasn’t dominant Thursday night.
It was tested.
And for the first time in 2026, the Bruins learned they could take a punch and still find a way to win.
Final: Cherry Creek 28, Chatfield 15.
You must be logged in to post a comment.