Broomfield rallies to down visiting Brighton
Eagles move to 2-0 in smoky conditions Friday
BROOMFIELD — For the second time in as many weeks, the Broomfield football team has come from behind to pull out a late victory.
Playing on a night that began under a cloud of smoke and ash blown by 15 mph winds, the Eagles pulled off a fourth-quarter comeback to win 30-21 against a strong Brighton squad. While they’re probably not hoping that style of game becomes a theme, the Eagles sure are proud of how they’ve been able to keep the battles alive until something breaks in their direction.
“You know, it’s just like coach Hubbard teaches us: ‘E + R = O’,” Eagles senior linebacker Hall Edmonds said. “You have an event and you choose your reaction, and that leads to an outcome. We’ve been dealing with adversity this whole year with COVID, having a different season with no fans. But we have a bunch of young guys who are picking it up and we’re getting better through adversity every week.”
Last year’s 4A runners-up and currently No. 4 in the CHSAANOW.COM poll, the
Eagles (2-0) have a young quarterback who is certainly picking things up quickly. Sophomore Cole Lacrue accounted for all four of Broomfield’s touchdowns in a 27-20 win over Monarch in Week 1. In Week 2, however, he gave up an early Eagles lead in the first quarter when he fumbled deep in his team’s own territory and the Bulldogs (1-1) fell on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
Broomfield trailed 15-10 at halftime and following a scoreless third quarter, the Eagles took over with the ball at their own 3-yard line to start the fourth. Two plays later, Lacrue hit 6-foot-3 junior wide receiver Josh Dunn for a 96-yard touchdown pass that gave the Eagles a 16-15 lead.
On the fifth play of the ensuing drive, Brighton scored on a long pass of its own when Nathaniel Griffeth hit Eli Bowman for a 66-yard score that gave the Bulldogs a 21-16 lead with 8:05 left. Six plays later, Lacrue escaped what appeared to be a sack to find Dunn for a 57-yard touchdown and senior Trent Finnegan ran in the twopoint conversion for a three-point lead.
On the Bulldogs’ next drive, Eagles junior Blake Naranjo intercepted a pass and set up an eventual 11-yard run by Finnegan made make it a two-score game with 4:12 left to play and Broomfield held on for the victory.
“You always want to take a big step between game one and game two, especially in a year when you don’t have a scrimmage and you don’t have a summer camp,” Broomfield head coach Blair Hubbard said. “That’s a senior-laden veteran football team over there in Brighton and they are very talented. Our young guys rose to the occasion tonight. We made some mistakes but we overcame them in the second half. I couldn’t be prouder and hopefully we’re putting some momentum together here.”
Continuing their shortened 4A Northern 1 league season, the Eagles will take on Silver Creek in Longmont next Friday.