COLORADO

Valor Christian finished runner up to Lewis-Palmer in 4A last year.

As it turned out, Lewis-Palmer was the only team to solve Valor Christian (27-2) in 2018, beating the Eagles twice. The good news for Valor Christian this time around was neither of those defeats took place in the postseason.

In fact, Valor Christian didn’t even have to concern itself with Lewis-Palmer come the playoffs this fall, not after moving up from 4A to 5A. Still, Valor Christian was hardly considered the 5A favorite, even as the regular wrapped up and still having lost only twice to Lewis-Palmer.