Stunner: Holy Family football rallies to beat 4A champ Broomfield in final seconds – The Denver Post

BROOMFIELD — The matchup between the Class 4A defending champs and the team it beat by 58 last season was the biggest ticket in the town of Broomfield Friday night.

Could anyone predict what was in store, though?

Those who crammed into Mike G. Gabriel Stadium — or as some did, watch from outside the gates — were treated to the biggest upset of the early season as 3A Holy Family rallied to beat Broomfield, 30-29, in the final seconds.

After Holy Family went up two scores early, Broomfield regrouped behind a rushing attack and offensive line featuring one of the state’s top 2024 prospects — 6-foot-4, 310-pound Landen Davidson, who is committed to Nebraska. The Eagles rushed for around 300 yards for a second straight week and had four different players score on the ground, leading to 23 straight points and a two-touchdown lead headed into the fourth quarter.

But the Tigers answered with two touchdowns and a winning two-point conversion from star QB Rylan Cooney in the final 8:37. Ashton Erickson caught his second TD of the game to make it 29-28. Cooney, after a roughing-the-passer penalty, then pushed ahead for the go-ahead, two-point conversion with 11 seconds remaining.

“They left a bitter taste in our mouth last year,” said Cooney, who threw for three touchdowns and finished with four scores in the win, giving him seven in two games this year. “We believed we could do it. All week we’ve been saying, ‘We can do this. We can do this.’ And we came out and we did it.”

Setting up an ending for stomach ulcers, Cooney’s rushing TD earlier in the fourth trimmed the deficit to 29-22. Broomfield QB CT Worley then orchestrated a 13-play drive that went inside the Tigers’ 20 before Dominic Gabriel’s fourth-down stop with 2:52 to go. The Tigers (2-0) went 87 yards and chose to go for 2 to win it in regulation.

Coach Mike Gabriel said there was no hesitation in the decision.

“When we got the ball, we were going for 2,” said Gabriel, who returned to coach the team this season as his wife Crystal underwent cancer treatments. He credited the community for helping his family though it.

Earlier, the 3A underdog opened the scoring thanks to a short field, set up by a muffed punt, and capped it off with a dart from Cooney to Erickson in the back corner of the end zone. The lead swelled to nine on Holy Family’s next offensive play, a 76-yard connection from Cooney to Jaxon Grable, before the Eagles got things together, scoring 20 straight to close the half.

Worley and running back Colin Torres both ran for a trio of scores in a 42-14 Week 1 win over Longmont and each of them added their fourth of the year against the Tigers. Worley finished 10-of-21 passing for 122 yards and ran for 84. Torres, after going for 188 on the ground a week ago, had 75.

Holy Family, which lost to the Eagles 65-7 a year ago, is at Mountain View Sept. 14. Broomfield (1-1), after seeing its 15-game win streak snapped, is home against Vista PEAK Prep next Friday.

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