Longmont won a rematch with Fort Collins at French Field on Friday. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
FORT COLLINS — On Sept. 18, the Longmont football team dropped a road game to Fort Collins, 13-7. A flag-filled, five-turnover performance that evening gave the Trojans a 1-3 record.
They were in serious danger of missing the playoffs.
Two months later, Longmont (9-3) hasn’t lost since. An aerial assault on Fort Collins led to a 42-35 win at French Field on Friday, giving the Trojans a Class 4A semifinals berth for the first time since a loss in the state championship game to Heritage in 2009.
On the same field that saw Longmont struggle with numerous miscues back in September, the Trojans displayed their revamped team. A powerful offensive line paved the way for an explosive passing attack Friday as senior quarterback Clint Sigg showed off his arm strength and accuracy. Throughout the evening, the Trojans were the aggressors.
From the get-go, No. 7-seeded Longmont (9-3) set the tone against the number two seeded and previously undefeated Lambkins (11-1).
On the Trojans’ first play, Sigg hit his favorite target, wide receiver Eli Sullivan in the flat. Sullivan ran through nearly the entire Fort Collins defense on a 58-yard gain. Sigg bulldozed in from six yards out to give Longmont a 7-0 lead.
Longmont quarterback Clint Sigg. (Brock Laue/CHSAANow.com)
A back-and-forth first half saw both teams march up and down the field. Sigg threw for 259 yards by halftime as Fort Collins quarterback Kyler Sigsbee, a talented signal-caller in his own right, rushed for 106 yards. Both offenses were rolling but the difference at halftime was turnovers. Fort Collins had two, Longmont had zero as the Trojans took a 28-14 lead into the break.
But Fort Collins, showing why they were 11-0 headed into the quarterfinals, continued to punish Longmont on the ground and marched up and down the field throughout.
Mason Schroyer, a hard-nosed runner who missed six games with injury this season, returned for the playoffs. Coming off a 188-yard, two-touchdown game on the ground last week in a 49-6 handling of Rampart, Schroyer was equally impressive Friday finishing with 178 rushing yards and a score. Sigsbee ran for 119 and a touchdown and passed for 270 yards and two touchdowns.
In a wild fourth quarter, Fort Collins threatened time and again as a Schroyer touchdown cut the lead to 35-28 with 8:03 to play. The Trojans answered back as a Sullivan 18 yard touchdown catch on third and long gave Longmont a 42-28 lead with 2:31 on the clock. But, Sigsbee wasn’t finished as he found Bradley Pelkey for a 38-yard touchdown pass with 1:43 to play to trim the deficit to seven again.
Fort Collins failed to recover the onside kick, but forced Longmont to punt. 98 yards, 37 seconds left with no timeouts left and all Longmont needed to do was prevent a big pass play. Instead the Trojans, as they had been all game, were the aggressors forcing a fumble to seal a semifinals bid.
The Lambkins rolled for more than 300 rushing yards and 500 yards of total offense and yet Longmont’s defense was stellar in one department, turnovers. The Trojans forced six of them, four fumbles and two interceptions.
“They’ve been money for us all year and I’m really proud of them,” Longmont coach Doug Johnson said of his defense. “They fly to the ball. We did enough to win.”
Offensively, Sigg finished 14-22 passing for 320 yards and three touchdowns. Sullivan (7 receptions for 132 yards and a touchdown) and Conlan Berger (130 receiving yards and a touchdown), a pair of elusive and fast junior playmakers, were too much for the Lambkins defense, as well.
“It takes 11 to make the passing game work,” Johnson said. “You have to have protection, you have to have a snap, you have to have good routes. We’ve been starting to execute well and I was pleased with that.”
“We knew they were a heavy blitz team,” Sigg added of the passing game. “We had a great week of practice. Even in the snow we were throwing and catching the ball well. Me just hitting the flats route and just making the open read and staying within myself helped our team a lot.”
“We’ve got skill positions through the roof,” Sullivan added.
Longmont, a team that returned a great core of talent from a 2013 playoff squad, was expected to be a force in 4A this season. A 1-3 start mostly attributed to turnovers and penalties would’ve put doubt into most teams. The Trojans proved they aren’t most teams with a semifinals berth.
“We talk about faith and belief and they refused to give up,” Johnson said of his team’s turnaround. “Our coaches, we stayed together. We didn’t implode and fall apart. We’ve been talking about doing this since 1-3.”
“With this team, I knew it was possible,” Sigg said of the magical playoff run. “We love each other so much and it’s a really tight knit group.”
A final four showdown with the winner of Saturday’s Broomfield vs. Montrose quarterfinals matchup awaits Longmont next week.
“It’s great to be a final four team,” Sigg said. “It hasn’t happened yet in my career. To come back and beat a really good team that beat us once shows a lot about our team.”
Asked if Sullivan and his team thought a semifinals run was possible this year, the wide receiver gave a resounding answer, one his coach would be proud of.
“Heck yeah, we did,” Sullivan said. “Our motto is believe or leave and that’s what we do.”