Football: Broomfield escapes thriller over rival Legacy
Broomfield football waited five long years to face off with cross-town rival Legacy again, and on Friday night at Elizabeth Kennedy Stadium, their anticipated matchup didn’t disappoint.
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BROOMFIELD — Broomfield football waited five long years to face off with cross-town rival Legacy again, and on Friday night at Elizabeth Kennedy Stadium, their anticipated matchup didn’t disappoint.
Generally offensive gladiators, Class 4A’s top-ranked Eagles struggled to get much of anything going against Legacy, instead relying on its defense to squeak out a 14-13 victory.
Two years after its Class 4A state championship berth, Broomfield looks just as lethal. Its second year under head coach Robert O’Brien couldn’t be going much better after it improved to 4-0 with little seeming to stand in its way.
Last season, the Eagles made it all the way to the Class 4A semifinals.
“The biggest thing is we’ve really come together as a team, and we’re really focusing on the moment this year,” O’Brien said. “Last year, you know, coming off a state title, there was a lot of pressure to get back there, and I think a lot of our focus was at the end of the season rather than to be in the moment, and right now our team is much more in the moment. Our goal is just to go 1-0 in everything we do, whether it be a practice, a meeting, something in their classroom, but that’s our goal is to go 1-0 every day, and the kids have really bought into that.”
Broomfield defeated its first three opponents by a 141-7 margin.
Legacy, for its part, looked much improved from its opening 35-7 loss against Fairview, with all cylinders seeming to click on offense and defense.
“For the offense, we’ve really found our rhythm,” sophomore quarterback Andrew Gardner said. “Our O-line has stepped up compared to the first two weeks. Our receivers, we’ve gotten a lot better overall. (Tonight) was a really cool environment. The crowd was really loud.”
Eagle senior running back Colin Torres gave the Lightning defense headaches all night long, eventually ending his night with 162 yards and both Broomfield touchdowns. Their defense couldn’t do much to contain Gardner, who impressed with 145 passing yards and his own score, most of which came in the second half.
“This feels so amazing,” Torres said. “I mean, we worked so hard for this, waking up 6:30 in the morning to go practice. Everything in the summer, workouts, everything, we wanted this so bad.We thought of this team in advance, we wanted them, and we worked for it.”
The Eagles got on the board first with a 1-yard run from Torres in the final minute of the first quarter, but ran into trouble trying to score on the Lightning again before the half. Their defense, meanwhile, kept Legacy scoreless through the break.
The defensive dogfight in the first half rendered just 96 offensive yards for both the Eagles and the Lightning, but they rewrote that narrative quickly in the third quarter. Torres opened the half with a 58-yard touchdown to give the Eagles a 14-0 edge just two minutes in, and Legacy’s KC Reiser responded immediately with a 59-yard kickoff return.
Broomfield’s defense shined brightest near the end zone, first in the third quarter when Alexander Darby sacked Gardner in the red zone to keep the Lightning out of the end zone and force a 28-yard field goal from Dominic Mezarina.
Gardner made up for that initial setback in the first few seconds of the fourth on a 12-yard toss to Joey Jewett, drawing the score to 14-10, before Reiser padded his own stat sheet with an interception and 23-yard return in the fourth.
Elliot Less provided the second misfortune for Legacy after making the game-saving sack with five minutes left. That pushed the Lightning back seven yards on a third and goal and force a 36-yard field goal.
“We were stopped inside our own goal line and just need to make a play,” Less said. “There’s no better time and place to do it right there. That was a game for sure. I knew it. I knew I had him.”
Senior quarterback Darien Jackson officially ended the game when he ran 10 yards to convert on a 4th-and-1 in the final minute.
The Eagles return home to take on Erie next Friday, while Legacy, now 1-3, will still search for its second win at Horizon on the same night. The Lightning will have all year to plot their revenge.
“We’re glad (the rivalry) is back,” Legacy head coach Jay Madden said. “We tried to get it back last year and it didn’t work out. We’ll play them every year as long as I’m coaching at Legacy, just because it’s good for the kids, it’s good for the community.”
