Recap

Elizabeth Kennedy Stadium was packed on Saturday for the highly anticipated semi-final matchup between rivals Broomfield and Erie.
Broomfield and Erie faced each other earlier this season, and the Eagles won soundly, 35-14. However, it was clear that this was a different Tiger team than Broomfield played in week four.

The Eagles came into this game looking to beat Erie by running the ball and controlling the clock and containing quarterback Blake Barnett (‘24), as they did in week four.
Erie received the opening kickoff, and executed their game plan perfectly to start. The Tigers put together a long touchdown drive, consisting of only run plays, keeping Cole LaCrue’s (‘23) offense off the field.
While it felt like Erie took the momentum early, the Eagles answered right back with a touchdown of their own.
Luke Francis (‘23) rushed for a touchdown to tie the game up going into the second quarter.
Broomfield was able to get a stop, and was driving down the field to go up by a touchdown, but Blake Barnett had other plans.
Barnett forced a fumble on defense, then led two scoring drives before the half.
Behind Barnett, Erie led 17-7 going into the break.

Outside of picking up a key fourth down conversion, Cole LaCrue hadn’t had much of an effect on the game, but that wasn’t going to last.
The Wisconsin quarterback commit came out of the break looking to lead a comeback with his legs.
LaCrue rushed for three touchdowns in the third quarter, leading the Eagles to a dominant 21-0 quarter.
The defense also made the right adjustments at half. Once Barnett was neutralized as a runner, Erie’s offense struggled to get anything going.

Broomfield led this game 28-17 going into the fourth quarter. The final period was one of the craziest any fan in that stadium will ever see.
The quarter started with the Erie offense scoring a touchdown to get right back into the game.
As well as the Broomfield defense adjusted, Blake Barnett wasn’t going away. Erie scored and converted the two point attempt, making the game 28-25.
With all of the pressure on him, Cole LaCrue came back on the field and looked to take a two possession lead once again.
In the big moment, LaCrue came up big, and led Broomfield down the field, and scored his fourth rushing touchdown of the half. With a 36-25 lead, Broomfield was just one stop away from winning.
But, as expected, Erie’s offense responded quickly. It took just two pass plays for Barnett and Erie to find the endzone. However, it was after the touchdown that Erie’s coach made a potentially game-losing decision. Instead of going for the two point conversion to cut the Broomfield lead to three, Erie kicked the extra point, and still trailed by four.
With under five minutes to go, up by four, Broomfield failed to get enough first downs to end the game, and was forced to punt with less than three minutes to go.
Punting has been a struggle for Broomfield all year, and when it mattered most, the Eagle punt went out of bounds at around the 50 yard line, giving Erie a chance to go win the game.
The first play of Erie’s potential game-winning drive was a sack by Devin Furuiye (‘23), but was followed up by a deep pass by Barnett that was completed.
After hurrying to line, with no timeouts, Barnett threw a short route to his receiver who had the chance to score, but was stopped just short of the goal line by Garrett Keeler’s (‘23) game-saving tackle.
If Erie elected to go for two after its previous touchdown, they could have settled for the field goal to tie it at this point, but instead had to go for the touchdown.
With only 20 seconds to go, Erie had one, maybe two, plays to score. Broomfield’s hopes were seemingly gone at this point, until Gio Toledo (‘25) made the play of the season.
Blake Barnett attempted to sneak the football around the edge for the score, but Toledo met Barnett short of the goaline, hitting him hard enough to jar the ball loose. Toledo picked up the fumble he forced, and Broomfield won the football game.
It is still controversial whether Barnett crossed the goal line or not, but either way, the Broomfield Eagles are headed to the 4A State Championship.

Analysis

In terms of each team’s gameplan, this game went as expected. Both teams looked to keep the opposing star quarterback off the field. Each side found success with this at some point, but both quarterbacks still had huge games. LaCrue and Barnett are both great players, and they were going to score points no matter what the defense did.

As for LaCrue, he had beat Erie with his legs. Despite running into the teeth of the defense on almost every play, LaCrue found success, rushing for 145 yards and four touchdowns.
While he didn’t throw the ball much, he completed two huge passes. LaCrue’s completion to Kaelan Frey (‘23) on fourth down and Canon Juarez (‘23) downfield were key plays in the game.
No matter what Erie did to stop LaCrue, he wasn’t going to be beat by his former school.

Broomfield’s defense faced a similar test in this game. Blake Barnett was going to score points, but the defense did exactly what it needed to do: make a couple huge plays.
Along with Toledo’s game winning play, Garrett Keeler did a great job containing Barnett a couple of times and Juarez had a big time pass break-up late in the game.

Broomfield didn’t play its best game, but when two great teams are playing each other, the good and bad will come out. Ultimately, the Eagles persevered, and will face Loveland in the State Championship game at Mile High.