When some snow and graupel descended on Tiger Stadium at the start of Summit High School football’s 41-0 win over Glenwood Springs on Saturday, Oct. 9, there was only one thing for quarterback Jack Schierholz to think.

“Honestly, I think one of my favorite ways to play football is in the snow,” Schierholz said after the game. “I was in my element, and I loved it.”

“Yeah,” Tigers senior star Aidan Collins added. “It was hype.”

On a slippery, snow-filled afternoon, Summit (4-2, 1-0 3A Central West League) seized momentum early off Glenwood Springs (3-3, 0-1) miscues in the inclement weather to take a 21-0 lead into halftime that it wouldn’t relinquish. And though Summit had several offensive stars on the day, it was the Tigers defense that executed a perfectly scouted game plan versus Glenwood’s bread-and-butter: a double-tight, double-wing formation.

Each and every member of the Tigers D was sound and confident in his assignment. Rather than get distracted in the snow, the Tigers defenders keyed their reads off the movement of Glenwood’s wingbacks to lead the defense to the play it needed to make.

Though he said it took every last defensive player to produce the shutout, Tigers head coach and defensive coordinator James Wagner said his two outside linebackers in senior Phil Berezinski and junior Zach Elam played incredible defense all night long.

Down in the trenches, Wagner said junior Ronaldo Wray was a key element of frustrating the Demons center who struggled to snap the ball early in the snow.

“That led to a lot of fumbled snaps,” Wagner said. “He played a great game.”

While Glenwood had poor snaps, fumbles and mistakes in the first half, Summit’s offense made the most of what the defense helped set up. It was on Summit’s second drive of the day when it rode burly senior running back Alex Sanchez into the end zone for one of his three rushing touchdowns on the day. Wagner said Summit went with the powerful senior after it saw it had a matchup advantage blocking down on Glenwood’s defensive ends, who were flying up into the backfield, leaving opportunities for Summit’s line to burrow holes in the interior.

“We know what we have with Alex,” Wagner said. “He gets his shoulders squared and goes downhill and falls forward. When you are in that type of a game, you need a guy like that.”

After Summit stalled out in the snow on its next short-field drive, the Tigers defense again gave the offense the ball in Demons territory. But Summit’s own mishaps and penalties resulted in a long fourth-down play within its own red zone. Rather than kicking in the snow, Wagner and offensive coordinator Sean Mase dialed up a deep ball into the end zone for Berezinski, who reeled it in despite a defender being draped on him for the 28-yard touchdown.

It was one of several big catches on the day for Berezinski, who also took a catch over the middle for over 50 yards on a highlight-reel, catch-and-run play in the third quarter that set up another Tigers touchdown.

“He hadn’t had his breakout game yet, but this is it,” Wagner said.

Berezinski’s touchdown catch to make it 14-0 at the start of the second quarter was one of three touchdown passes on the day for the junior quarterback Schierholz, while Sanchez ran in three total touchdowns for himself, too.

Schierholz’s other touchdown passes came on a pop pass to junior Jack Hodge in the third quarter and an exclamation point of a 70-plus yard go-route touchdown to senior star Collins in the fourth quarter.

Schierholz’s secret to success on the slippery day? To make sure the team managers were rotating in fresh, dry towels each drive.

He had good enough grip in the weather for his best game of the season and to drop a pass into the bucket for Collins on the final score.

“Going into the huddle, Jack told me, ‘You got a fade route,’” Collins said. “And when the defensive back was playing outside leverage, I took one jab in, and he didn’t come with me, and I knew I had it. It was a sweet play.”