The number 2 team in Colorado 5A football hosted the number 5 team in Colorado 4A football on Friday night. The Pomona Panthers opened up their 2012 football season against the visiting Broomfield Eagles at the North Area Athletic Complex under the Friday Night Lights. Unlike the Golden and Thompson Valley game the night before, this one was huge. With tons of fans showing up on both sides, you could feel that there was something big in the air. And it was not just the Blue Moon over the stadium.
With both teams highly ranked in their divisions, and Pomona the #2 team overall in the state, it would have been a huge upset if a 4a team could come onto the Pomona home field (Pomona is one of many schools that use NAAC as their home field) and upset the Panthers.
There was a lot of media at this game. Altitude Sports was broadcasting the game, Broomfield had a couple photographers, it looked like there was at least one newspaper photographer, and there were quite a few Pomona student photographers on the sidelines.
As the game kicked off, Broomfield looked like it was going to take an early lead, but with a 52 yard pick 6, Pomona struck first taking a 6-0 lead in the first (missed Point after Touchdown). Just a couple plays later Broomfield fumbled the ball on the 42 yard line, and after 7 plays, Pomona found themselves on the 1 yard line where the QB followed his offensive line across the goal line on the 8th play for Pomona’s second touchdown of the game. With a good PAT the Panthers found themselves leading 13-0 early in the game. The Panthers went up 20-0 in the first quarter before Broomfield could finally score. With a missed Broomfield PAT, the Eagles found themselves trailing by 13 points going into the 2nd quarter.
In the second, Pomona did a great job of holding Broomfield scoreless. Broomfield started to play some good defense in the second quarter. After giving up 20 points (14 points were the defenses loss), the Eagles held the Panthers scoreless until 5 minutes left in the quarter, when Pomona found the end zone again, taking a 26-7 lead until the final minute of the half when Broomfield was able to hit a 25 yard field goal to trail by 16 at half.
When the second half started, things started to get interesting. Broomfield kicked off to Pomona, but the Panthers were forced to set up for a punt on 4th down, but the snap sent the ball past the punter and Broomfield ended up with the ball on the 3 yard line and a couple plays later, Broomfield put 7 more points on the board. Now, trailing Pomona by 9. However, in the second half, while Broomfield outplayed Pomona, the Eagles would get within 10 only to have Pomona regain control and put another 7 points on the board. In the third quarter, Broomfield outscored Pomona 14 to 7 and went into the 4th trailing the Panthers 33 to 24.
In the 4th, Pomona struck early, scoring on a 12 yard touchdown pass and added a two point conversion. This would put the home team up 41-24, and would be the last points that Pomona would score in the game. Broomfield was on a mission though. With 4 minutes left in the game, the Broomfield Eagles would score on 1 yard run, and with a good PAT, trailed the Panthers by 10 with under 4 minutes to go. After forcing Pomona to give up the ball, Broomfield scored on a 16 yard pass and sent the PAT up through the uprights to trail by 3 points with under two minutes to go. However, the onside kick by Broomfield went to Pomona and the Panthers were able to string enough plays together to keep Broomfield from scoring again, sealing a 41 to 38 win for Pomona.
While the first quarter of the game was ugly, it was the first game of the season for both teams and it was overall, a great game. Well, it was for Broomfield. For a 4a school put up 38 points on the number two team in the state and only lose by three to a 5a school, those boys should be very proud. Pomona better work on their second half defense before they start seeing teams in their own division.
It is taking me some time to get use to shooting football with a flash, and the play down here is just so much faster. I am struggling, but the more football I shoot, the better things will get. I am not sure I will shoot too much high school this week with a Rapids game on Wednesday night and the Colorado Buffs on Saturday.
Oh, and let me leave you with that big thing in the air that I was talking about early on in this post. The Blue Moon found a clearing in the clouds in the sky above the stadium and I grabbed a couple shots.
