LAKEWOOD – As The Classical Academy players exited the field, they did so to chants of, “I believe that we just won,” from Titan fans who traveled to Trailblazer Stadium.

A drastic, but welcome, shift from 2024. No more chatter about last year’s state title game result. The Classical Academy is the new 4A champion.

The top-seeded Titans lambasted No. 2 Mountain View 34-0 in the title game Saturday to capture the school’s first flag football championship and avenge last year’s loss to the Mountain Lions.

“This is a tribute to our young women,” coach Dale Meyerrose said. “They’re outstanding athletes and outstanding people. That’s the first ingredient. They’re also imminently trainable and anxious to learn. We changed the offense, defense, the whole nine, and they adapted to it and executed. I couldn’t be prouder.”

The Titans’ (16-3) wire-to-wire victory is a 180 from TCA’s previous meetings with Mountain View (16-3). In the 2024 title game, the Mountain Lions blanked the Titans 26-0. In their regular season tilt this year, TCA escaped with a 39-32 triple overtime victory.

At no point in the championship game did the Mountain Lions appear prepared for the blitz – metaphorical and literal – the Titans threw at Mountain View. Of the Lions’ seven first-half drives, six ended in punts and two via Brooklyn Blair interceptions.

The only drive that didn’t end with the Titans stopping the Lions was at halftime, where TCA took a 21-0 lead into the break.

“Our mentality switched from trying to take everything that doesn’t matter like focusing on hairstyles and stuff like that,” Ryann Ferguson said of TCA’s approach to this year’s title game. “We switched to focus on what we could control. We focused on how we could catch it, how we play and trying to control the bigger things. We just went out there and played ball.”

Ferguson caught two touchdown passes from quarterback Kelsey Peterson including the junior QB’s third and final passing TD to give the Titans a 27-0 lead. The Titans’ offensive barrage came from several directions: Peterson rushed for a pair of scores, Ferguson had two receptions for touchdowns and Reagan Harter also had a receiving TD.

“We had a lot more confidence playing them today than we did at the beginning of the season,” Peterson said. “At the beginning of the season, we were still like, ‘They beat us. They’re the ones who feel like they’re on top.’ We knew we got that tough win against them in triple overtime and we played a hard semifinals game (against Green Mountain) on Wednesday and faced a lot of adversity in that game. That prepared us for this game and helped us keep going even when we had the lead.”

For those who kept score, the forementioned touchdowns gave the Titans 28 points. Blair wreaked havoc in the secondary all day and had three of the four TCA interceptions including a pick-6.

Blair’s second interception went for a touchdown in the second quarter and gave the Titans a 14-0 cushion. In the third, after Mountain View reached Titan territory for the first time, Blair collected her third interception of the game with 3:27 left in the frame and kept the Mountain Lions off the board.

“A lot of this had to do with our mindset,” Blair said. “We told each other that we were willing to pick each other up and that’s how we were going to go into this game. We couldn’t get down because we were supposed to come together and work together.”

Before Colorado High School Activities Association officials handed the Titans their coveted gold plaque, Brinley Mezey took the Titans’ nameplate and placed it above the word “champion” on the makeshift playoff board CHSAA brought to the field.

Mezey, who was on crutches after she tore her left ACL on Sept. 8 against Pomona, also moved The Classical Academy’s name after their semifinals win against Green Mountain on Wednesday. It’s a small piece but sweating the details helped TCA capture this championship.

“This feels so good because we’ve been waiting for this for a year now,” Peterson said. “I knew we could do it and I love this team. We have the fight in us and we wanted to do this for each other and the seniors.”