The Battle of the Rock rivalry in Castle Rock was renewed last week when Douglas County High School took on Castle View.

While Douglas County started out strong, it was Castle View that finished strong.

Castle View scored 29 unanswered points after falling behind 7-0 and went on to register a 29-7 victory in the Sept. 15.

A near capacity crowd at Douglas County Stadium was split down the middle with purple-clad fans on one side and people dressed in red on the other.

Douglas County came out strong in the first two series and moved the ball proficiently with senior running back Jake Stonebraker doing a majority of the work.

Senior Quarterback Jordan Wilhelm scored to spark Douglas County to an early touchdown lead.

However, the Sabercats stormed back, scoring 29 unanswered points with three rushing touchdowns, two field goals and a safety to improve their overall record to 4-0. Douglas County fell to 2-2 on the season.

The win also snapped a two-game winning streak for Douglas County in the Battle of the Rock series.

The Sabercats now hold a 7-5 advantage over the Huskies in games played during the rival series.

“It was a typical rivalry game, “ said Castle View head coach Eric Handke. “Both sides were going to play their hearts out. This one was extra special for our Castle View community and bigger than just the football program. It was a long week with lots of distractions that you don’t get in a normal week.From many different areas it was challenging emotionally because our school was disrespeted, our players, our coaches, my family. 

“Sometimes it’s hard to keep our emotions in check but I thought we did a good job overall and stuck to our game plan and kept swinging and were fortunate enough to come out on top. Give credit to DC, they came out and fought us. Most importantly we’re 4-0 and have some big games in front of us so we’ve got to get back to work.”

Junior Sabercats quarterback Derek Gordon completed 12 of 20 passes for 103 yards.Ethan Gonzales, also a junior, ran 13 times for 112 yards and a touchdown. Aaron Perry and Camden Tobler also had rushing TDs for Castle View.

Ike Wiebelhaus was the team’s top receiver with five catches while Ben Knox, Weston Vildibill and Keegan Dionido had interceptions.

Castle View’s offensive line, featuring Ryder Smith, Cody Mazzoni and Evan Gaston, has been reshuffled because of injuries but played well.

“I don’t thing we played our best football and the intensity of the game had a lot to do with that,” added Handke. “All week we preached that it was just another game, we needed to go play physical and do our job and not get caught up in all the drama that was happening around us. I thought we played very physical but I don’t think we always did our job as well as I’ve seen us do in the first three games.’’

Douglas County head coach Eric Rice says that mistakes led to the Huskies defeat.

“Too many mistakes and turnovers on offense,’’ said Rice. “Special teams gave up a punt return (39 yards by Knox) that gave CV the ball inside the 10-yard line that led to their first TD. Our defense was solid most of the night even though being put in some pretty tough positions.”