4A Football: Broomfield rallies to win fifth state title

Jessica Maestas

Football
12/7/2024 6:02:53 PM

Alissa Noe/BoCoPreps

FORT COLLINS Just when it looked like Montrose would score a tying touchdown in the final two minutes of the Class 4A state title game, Broomfield senior strong safety Gio Toledo flew through the air at Canvas Stadium to take everything away from the second…seeded Red Hawks.

Two years after making the decision to send the fifth-seeded Eagles to the state championship, which they ultimately won, he secured their sixth overall state title with a spectacular interception. The steal on the Eagles' own 14-yard line sparked a 28-point comeback in their thrilling 35-28 win over the Red Hawks.

Gio is that guy, and Gio does that every day in practice, head coach Robert O'Brien said. I wasn't surprised at all to see him play that role in the state championship game. He does it every day in practice. No shock at all for me.

In 2022, Toledo secured a fumble from Colorado touchdown leader Blake Barnett at the 1-yard line on its home field. A week later, the Eagles defeated Loveland at Mile High Stadium. He played a hero again in his final act with Broomfield.

“I knew the pass was coming,” Toledo explained. “I mean, (Aidan Grijalva) and (Chase Mehan) are the quarterback's favorite guys. I didn't see him throw to anyone else. After halftime we stopped blowing in the box, went back to our base defense, and got four DBs. So I just picked my guy, I went back for the ball, the ball is there, and I'm going to make a play on it.

He was far from the only Eagle who saved the heroics for the title game. Senior quarterback Darien Jackson was named Most Outstanding Player after throwing for 181 yards and two touchdowns, then running one in with his own two feet. Senior cornerback Mikhail Benner, who will attend Air Force next year, contributed 112 yards and his own score on offense while not punishing Montrose on defense.

The Red Hawks offense revolved around Broomfield for the entire first half, scoring every time the ball was touched. The Eagles couldn't match Grijalva, who found the end zone twice with 71 yards on eight carries. Montrose quarterback Cade Saunders rubbed salt in the wound with 63 passing yards and two touchdowns.

When the Eagles were allowed to score, they trusted Jackson to tick the number on the scoreboard. He threw for 106 yards in the first half alone and connected with Elliot Fewer and Benner in the end zone.

The Red Hawks led by as many as 21 points with 40 seconds left in the first half, but after that the tides began to change. The Eagles took the ball 81 yards in that short period of time before Jackson threw a dime to Benner, who got him within a hair's breadth of the pylon.

Everyone will say the catch at the end of the game was the winning play, but that score in the end zone with six seconds left in the half was the score of the game, O'Brien said. We went 81 yards in 40 seconds to cut this to a two-score game, and we got the ball back in the second half.

Broomfield was a tsunami after falling behind 28-14 at halftime.

The biggest increases came from Fewer, Joe Larsen and Jackson, who scored the final three touchdowns of the game on runs. Broomfield's defense, meanwhile, stopped the Red Hawks dead in the water.

Benner was the first to crush Montrose's attack. Immediately after Less fumbled the ball in the end zone, resulting in a touchback for the Red Hawks, Benner repaid his foul with a fumble on the next play, no less.

Toledo drowned the Red Hawks once and for all with the interception with 2:06 remaining. Broomfield's senior class once again proved deadly.

You can't really ask for more, right? OBrien said. Like the strip down here, Gio Toledo's diving interception, Mikhail Benner's one-handed catch. Darien Jackson says with a minute and a half on the clock: Let me throw the ball. I'm going to complete this ball. We're going to win this football match.” That's exactly what he did.

It's all culture. It doesn't matter who the coach is. It doesn't matter who the players are. Broomfield High School does things at Broomfield High School. And that is culture. We work on that every day, and hats off to our administration that supports us every day with our culture.