Pomona senior Cameron Gonzales (22) fights for yards during the Panthers’ 42-21 victory over Columbine. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
LAKEWOOD — Pomona’s football team showed off its depth Friday night to move on to the Class 5A state semifinals.
It might have looked bleak when junior running back Max Borghi went down with a right knee injury late in the first quarter at Jeffco Stadium. The No. 1 seed Panthers were trailing Jeffco rival Columbine 14-7 at the end of the first quarter, but Pomona rallied to an eventual 42-21 victory.
“They have been wanting to prove they weren’t just the Jake and Max Show,” Pomona coach Jay Madden said referring to Borghi — 21 touchdowns on the season — and highly recruited offensive lineman Jake Moretti that couldn’t play this season because of a knee injury over the summer. “They got to do it tonight.”
Pomona junior Max Borghi breaks a tackle before having to leave the game with an knee injury Friday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
It turned into the Ryan Marquez and Billy Pospisil Show for the Panthers. Marquez finished 14-of-17 passing for 277 yards and three touchdowns. Pospisil, who sat out Pomona’s first-round game last week because of a shoulder injury, had seven catches for 211 yards and three touchdowns.
“I knew everyone was going to step up when Max went down,” Pospisil said. “I give a lot of credit to our o-line and Ryan for letting me make those plays.”
The backbreaker for No. 9 Columbine came seconds after the Rebels cut Pomona’s lead to 28-21. Columbine senior quarterback Mikey Griebel threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to junior Ted Mullen on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it a one-score game.
However, Marquez connected with Pospisil on the next offensive play from scrimmage. Griebel nearly came up with a diving interception, but the ball got through to Pospisil for a 61-yard touchdown catch and run.
“The ball kind of slipped out. It’s always kind of scary when you have a player like Mikey baring down on a ball like that,” Marquez said of his final touchdown pass of the night that put Pomona ahead 35-21. “Somehow the ball squeaked through and Billy made a play. Off to the races he goes.”
Marquez put the game away with a 5-yard touchdown run on Pomona’s next offensive drive to double-up on the Rebels. Pomona senior running back Cameron Gonzales finished with 24 carries for 126 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Columbine senior Tim Mullin breaks off a 69-yard run in the first quarter. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
“They have a lot of weapons. Their offensive line gets off the ball. They are well-coached, tough kids and they work hard,” Columbine coach Andy Lowry said after the Rebels finished up a 9-3 season. “I’m proud of our kids. This is a real special group of young people. They gave us everything they had in the world to us. As young men there are no one better.”
Pomona (11-1) moves on to the 5A semifinals were it will host No. 4 Regis Jesuit at 1 p.m. next Saturday at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada.
It’s not known if the Panthers will have Borghi, who was on crutches after the game, back for the semifinal. Borghi said he would have his knee evaluated more Saturday.
“It’s always sad to lose someone with an injury, especially someone that I’m close to like Max,” Marquez said. “We are just going to have to come out with what we’ve got. I believe that will be enough to find a way to another state championship game.”
This was the third straight season the two Jeffco schools have met in the playoffs and the third time Pomona has eliminated Columbine.
“It doesn’t matter who you go out against,” Lowry said. “The finality piece of the playoffs is the tough part. You just aren’t prepared for it.”
In the previous two playoff meetings, Pomona edged Columbine 21-20 last year after the Rebels missed an extra point that likely would have sent the semifinal game into overtime. The Panthers defeated the Rebels 21-14 in the round of 16 in 2014.
It was the fifth meeting between Pomona and Columbine over the past three seasons, which included the teams splitting conference games the previous two years in the old 5A Jeffco League. The new waterfall format that broke up power conferences like Jeffco and Centennial, so Friday night was the first meeting this season between Pomona and Columbine.
Pomona has come so very close to adding a second state football title. The Panthers won the 4A title back in 1988. Madden guided Pomona to 5A title games in 2009 and 2015, but the Panthers suffered 3-point losses to Mullen and Valor Christian on both occasions.
“We get to go back home on Saturday and try to do it again,” Madden said about getting into a third state title game in seven years. “Regis is a heck of a football team. They run our offense. It’s going to be a wide-open game.”
Friday night’s Class 5A state quarterfinal game was the third straight season Columbine and Pomona has met in the postseason. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)