ARVADA — You might have heard … Pomona senior Max Borghi is a pretty decent football player.
Borghi showed Friday night at the North Area Athletic Complex why Washington State University jumped at the chance to bring the running back to Pullman, Wash. next year. Borghi scored four rushing touchdowns in the opening quarter against Mountain Vista.
“Everything clicked,” Pomona coach Jay Madden said of the Panthers 42-point first quarter. “We didn’t practice very well and we got on the pretty hard. They came out tonight and played exactly who we wanted them to play.”
Pomona (6-2, 3-0 in Mt. Evans League), No. 3 in the CHSAANow.com Class 5A football poll, cruised to a 49-14 victory over Mountain Vista.
Pomona’s Max Borghi’s 65-yard touchdown run to close out the 1st quarter Friday night. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Borghi had scoring jaunts of 46, 10, 8 and 65 yards. The longest came on the final play of the first quarter that pushed the Panthers’ lead to 42-0 and forced a running clock for the remainder of the Class 5A Mt. Evans League game.
Borghi capped off his night with a 62-yard punt return in the second quarter.
“I was planning on fair catching it, but it was kind of a bad punt. Then it bounced and it hit my hand,” Borghi said. “I knew I had to take it and adrenaline just took over from there. Senior year and homecoming, I knew I had to get a fifth (touchdown) right there.”
The surgically repaired knee appears to be close to full-strength. Borghi finished the game with seven carries for 164 yards and four rushing touchdowns, to go along with he punt return for his final score.
“21 (Borghi) is pretty special and he isn’t all the way back,” Madden said. “He has a couple of weeks to be all the way back. Come the playoffs he’ll be unbelievable.”
“Next man up” has unfortunately been a motto for the Panthers over the last year.
Pomona’s Ryan Marquez (2) cools off Max Borghi after his 5th TD against Mountain Vista. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Borghi and Cameron Gonzales went down with season-ending injuries in the playoffs. Both missed the Class 5A state championship game against Valor Christian. Not to mention, current University of Colorado offensive lineman Jake Moretti missed his entire senior season at Pomona with a knee injury he suffered the summer before the 2016 season.
Almost unfairly the injury bug bite the Panthers again in 2017. Senior and three-year starting quarterback Ryan Marquez suffered a broken left arm (non-throwing arm) in the Panthers’ conference opener Oct. 7 against Rock Canyon.
“It’s seems like we’ve had this injury bug, but we have shown we can all step up so far,” Borghi said. “We’ll miss him (Marquez) until he gets back.”
Madden said Friday night that Marquez will be back, hopefully by the start of the playoffs.
Junior Colton Muller did a solid job in his first varsity start at quarterback last week. Muller was 4-for-8 passing. Sounds modest, but all four completed passes went for touchdowns in the Panthers’ 42-7 victory over Hinkley.
Muller actually opened the scoring against Mountain Vista with a 71-yard touchdown pass to junior Billy Pospisil on the first play from scrimmage. The Panthers scored touchdown on their first three offensive plays from scrimmage.
Pomona junior defensive backs Riley Welsch and Jack Thiele both intercepted Mountain Vista quarterback Caden Wetzel on the Golden Eagles’ first two offensive possessions to give short fields to Pomona’s offense.
“Our (defensive backs) pulled through,” Welsch said. “Our defensive line pulled through getting pressure on the quarterback to give us those opportunities.”
Madden added this his defense played “smart and with confidence” in the third straight league victory. In eight conference games over the past two years in the current waterfall alinement, Pomona is 8-0 and have outscored its league opponents 375-78.
Pomona continues its journey through the conference next week against Chaparral at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26, at NAAC.
Mountain Vista (3-5, 1-2) will attempt to get back on track when the Golden Eagles hit the road to face Cherokee Trail next Friday night.
Pomona senior Mateo Crespin (42) celebrates before Max Borghi (21) gets into the end zone on a punt return for a touchdown. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)