On Saturday, Colorado 2021 commit Kaden Dudley and the Palmer Ridge Bears won the CHSAA 3A state championship game over Pueblo South, 35-13. The Bears won their third consecutive state title and Dudley played a big part in making it happen.

Yesterday was a busy day for a number of in-state Colorado commits. Four players in total won state championships on Saturday. Carson Lee and Jayle Stacks captured a 5A title while Kaden Dudley and Anthony Costanzo emerged victorious in the 3A championship game.

Dudley said he experienced a flurry of emotion after the win.

"After the game I had a lot of emotions," he said. "You don't really know how to react of be happy or sad — we won another state championship but a lot of friends and teammates are going off to college (and) moving on to better things. It definitely feels good, (and is) a pretty cool experience. Not a lot of kids get to experience it."

Winning states as a junior — and as a main contributor for his team — created a different feeling after last year's state championship victory during his sophomore campaign.

"It definitely feels different," he said."My sophomore year, I was a young kid and we had a lot of good players on the team. This year, I'm a little older and, an upperclassmen, so I definitely tried to step up as a leader this year."

Dudley was no doubt humble when speaking of his role as a leader for Palmer Ridge this year, but there's nothing to be humble about when looking at his on-field actions in the big game — Dudley caught two long TD passes, one for 87 yards and another for 81 — plays that proved to be mortal wounds to Pueblo South.

His 87-yard TD reception came on a 2nd and 22 from the Bears' own 13-yard line. Palmer Ridge QB, game MVP and Colorado State commit Luke McAllister heaved the ball way downfield and Dudley somehow came down with it, defeating two Pueblo South DBs in the process.

That touchdown came with the score tied at 7-all in the second quarter. Palmer Ridge ran away with things in the second half, eventually winning, 35-13, but Dudley's TD no doubt was a major backbreaker for the Colts' state title aspirations.

Dudley said that he and McAllister ultimately improvised a bit on the play, with both players making an on the spot observation of Pueblo South's defensive tendencies and exploiting it.

"Usually, the design of the play is a little different. I'll stick to the sideline, so it's not supposed to be a big play (like it was. The game) was tied and something needed to happen to change the pace of it, so me and Luke talked about it before — if I didn't see a safety over the top I was just going to take it deep to the crease. They leave the middle of the field pretty much wide open."

"I hit the crease, hit the seam right where I saw it open. Luke got hit in the backfield but got the ball out. When It was in the air, I had two defenders on me and they had my left hand grabbed up, so I caught it with my right and managed to break away from both of them."

The play and Dudley's performance no doubt was impressive to Jay Johnson, who was there watching.

Dudley indicated that he won't let his foot off the gas in terms of offseason training and conditioning, but did want to make sure to take care of his body as much as possible after back-to-back lengthy playoff runs.

"As far as next season, I've got to make sure I step up as a leader. This year I felt like I stepped up...we're going up to 4A (in 2020) so we'll all have to grow up a little bit. We've enjoyed the championships we've won, but the grind never stops."