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.