Pueblo South, East football ready for 45th Cannon Game rivalry tilt on Friday

As the weather begins to crisp up, the smell in the air is starting to change. It’s the perfect weather for football. For the 45th time, the Pueblo South Colts and the Pueblo East Eagles will battle it out at Dutch Clark Stadium in the heavily anticipated “Cannon Game.”

The Colts lead the all-time series against the Eagles with a 41-19-1 record (31-13 in the Cannon Game), including winning it the past three years. Pueblo East has only four wins in this rivalry since 2004.

“You know, I've been around this game for my whole entire life,” Colts coach Ryan Goddard said. “As a kid watching in the stands, playing in the game, to being an assistant and being a head coach, most of my life has been around South Colt football. It's huge for the community, it's huge for our kids, it's huge for our school.”

Both South and East are coming off blowout losses. While South is having its worst start since the 2012-13 season at 0-3, East (3-1) is looking like a contender. It's their best start to a season since 2018-19 when they finished second in the state.

“It is important, it means everything to me,” Eagles coach Tony Valdez said. “It's a very humbling experience to be able to represent Pueblo East High School football and represent this community in that game. It’s a big-time rivalry game and having not won in three years, we want the cannon bad.”

The game is important to both sides. Winning the big came can provide a powerful momentum boost to propel either team into a winning streak.

“It's a big game at the beginning of the year,” Goddard said. “It’s a very special week and something that you have got to enjoy. Everything that goes into it, all the support and what everyone does for it, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't meaningful because it's meaningful and it's something that we look forward to every year."

The quarterbacks for this year's matchup are also looking forward to the game. Pueblo East’s Zayden Stevens, who is a transplant to Pueblo, is excited to get a chance to participate in this historic rivalry.

“Playing this game means a lot,” Stevens said. “I'm not from here, so coming here and playing in this game means a lot to me. I'm humbled and blessed to be in this position I am in right now and just want to go win."

Pueblo South’s quarterback has considerably more experience with this game. Kaleb Ortiz is a senior and is set to play in his fourth Cannon Game as a Colt.

“I've been in the stands since I was a kid watching the Cannon Game,” Ortiz said. “Starting in this game is just something I've been looking forward to as I started to play football. It's a big game that's on the schedule, but it's just another game and we have to prepare the same way you do for all games and we just go a little harder."

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East has its sight set on bringing the cannon back home for the first time since 2018 and Valdez said he'll do what he can to prepare his team for a tough battle.

“We have got to play clean football,” Valdez said. “You can't beat yourself with turnovers and you can't have penalties. We also have to score in the red zone and we've got to block and we need to tackle. It's going to be an old-fashioned, Friday night light great game and there are going to be some big hits and the team that makes the fewest number of mistakes will win.”

The 45th edition of the Cannon Game will take place Friday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. at Dutch Clark Stadium.

Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or on Twitter: @chowebacca

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo South, East football ready for 45th Cannon Game rivalry tilt