Broncos battle until the final seconds, fall 14-13 to Colfax

The Northeast B game of the week was in Colfax last Friday when the undefeated Bulldogs hosted the equally undefeated LRS Broncos. While Colfax has been posting huge wins around the eastern portion of the state, this outing was destined to be a high caliber gridiron clash.

The result was a battle of wills down to the very last second as the Broncos came up one-point short in a heartbreaker, 14-13.

“It was a good game,” head coach Greg Whitmore said. “It was pretty physical. When you’re on the road you can’t make that many mistakes, especially on special teams.”

Colfax was the first to score, on a 28-yard jaunt by Justin Beraducci in the first quarter.

The Broncos came up short twice in the first half, missing opportunities to score when they were deep in Colfax territory.

“Early we played really tight and didn’t have Chris (Steinmetz),” Whitmore said. “And Dylan (Hartz) was really tight throwing the ball. When you do that, you don’t move the chains. We had fairly long drives. But when you do that you can’t miss out on scoring opportunities.”

After the intermission, Colfax came out quickly and capitalized in the first few minutes of play scoring in the third quarter on a three-yard run. The score came after a special teams mistake that Whitmore said gifted the Bulldogs with great field position and an opportunity for a quick score.

After that the Broncos’ defense kicked it into overdrive and pummeled Colfax, delivering frequent tackles for lost yards and sacks.

Ultimately it led to a chance for the offense to catch up, which it did in the third quarter when Connor O’Niell punched it in for a touchdown from three yards out on a short pass play.

After a grinding battle on the ground, O’Neill delivered a huge score for the Broncos on a 59-yard running playing. The extra point kick went wide, and was eventually the difference in the game.

“Colfax has been a high scoring team this year,” Whitmore said. “We knew they were capable of big plays. To hold them to 14 points gives our kids a lift. It was a tough loss but we gained confidence out of it. For us, there’s a lot to be gained from this loss.”

For the night, Hartz was six of 16 for 20 yards.

Steinmetz finished with 93 yards rushing on 13 carries. O’Neill had 77 yards on six carries. Hartz racked up 78 yards rushing on 10 carries.

On defense Hartz had a big night with four solo tackles, five first hits and four assists. Keanu Niezwaag had one solo tackle, three first hits and four assists. Jake Dewald had a huge night with four solo tackles, three first hits and four assists. Brent Stromberger, Cory Goble, Jarradd Morley and Tyler Frederick pestered the Colfax quarterback all night and generated two sacks and three tackles for lost yards.

The Broncos had one chance to win the game late in the fourth quarter, running a no huddle offense and operating without timeouts, they came up just short.

This Friday the Broncos travel to Reardan for another huge game with massive implications for both teams in terms of postseason playoffs.

“The winner of this game has the best shot at finishing second in the league. Last week’s game was big. This week’s game is huge,” Whitmore said. “Since the 1970s these games have been barnburners. We just can’t make mistakes on the road.”

Whitmore said the Broncos will need to throw the ball better in order to gain the upper hand over the Indians.