4A: Pine Creek's season ends in heartbreaking fashion

LONGMONT - After more than 1,000 yards of combined offense, 12 touchdowns and improbable breaks, it was Pine Creek that finally blinked.

Armon Golabi’s extra-point attempt sailed left in the waning moments, taking with it a perfect season and state-championship aspirations as the Eagles lost 42-41 at Longmont in an unforgettable 4A quarterfinal on Saturday.

The botched PAT followed 3 wild minutes that saw Longmont (10-2) break a tie with a three-play, 80-yard drive and Pine Creek (11-1) answer with a “miracle” touchdown of its own.

Even after the miss and with no timeouts, the Eagles seemed to have new life when they appeared to have recovered the onside kick. But officials ruled that a Pine Creek player touched the ball before it had traveled 10 yards.

Two Longmont kneel-downs later and the season was over.

“It’s as bad as it gets,” Pine Creek coach Todd Miller said in his second attempt to talk with reporters after breaking down the first time. “These are good kids. We’ve won a lot of games with these seniors and they’ve developed a legacy for us. But this is what high school football is about. It’s about dealing with adversity, coming back in life and getting better.”

Pine Creek will be hard-pressed to play in a better game.

The Eagles jumped on top when Josh Chance – in a sign of things to come – broke the third play of the game for a 67-yard touchdown.

With 123 rushing yards, Chance led a trio of Eagles – Kris Kentera (114), Shomari Cousar (109) being that others –that ran for more more than 100 yards. As a team, Pine Creek piled up 509 rushing yards.

“That’s like a Georgia Tech offense,” Longmont coach Doug Johnson said. “It’s so hard to stop - the triple-option - and they run it so well.”

If Pine Creek was Georgia Tech, Longmont quarterback Jake Johnson was Tim Tebow.

The senior threw for 412 yards, completing 21-of-28 passes for three touchdowns. He also ran for 54 yards and a pair of scores. The only touchdown he didn’t have a hand in was set up by his 67-yard pass.

“I think he’s the best player in the 4A,” Johnson said of his 6-foot-2, 210 pound leader, who shrugged off an early interception to answer Chance’s early touchdown with a score of his own.

From there, the Trojans became a rabbit for the Eagles to try and catch. And they did, answering each touchdown to tie the game at 14, 21, 28 and 35.

“Coming into the game I knew they were a tough team, I mean, they’ve allowed like eight points a game the entire season,” said Johnson, actually shortchanging the Pine Creek defense, which had allowed just 61 points in 11 games. “When we got it going we had a feeling.”

Johnson sent the home crowd at Everly-Montgomery Field into a frenzy when he found Dawlton Cole for a 73-yard, go-ahead touchdown with less than 4 minutes remaining. Cole, who led the game with 170 receiving yards, broke loose when defender Nick Markowski lost his footing.

Markowski bounced right back on the next possession.

Pine Creek, after converting a fourth-and-4 earlier in the drive, caught the break of the game when a pass from Kentera deflected off of a Longmont defender right to Markowski, who took it in from 42 yards with just over a minute remaining.

That set up Golabi’s pivitol miss.

“I went nuts,” Johnson said. “I was praying before that play, going, ‘Give us a miracle here.’ They got the miracle first, then we got the missed kick. Man, I was going nuts.”

Predictably, the Pine Creek sideline was experiencing opposite emotions as at least one helmet slammed to the turf and eyes welled up.

Miller led the Eagles to the semifinals last year and his team believed it could go further this year. Still, he was left heartbroken and sure of two things – he didn’t want to blame it all on his kicker and his team bowed out in an exciting finale.

“That could have gone either way,” Miller said. “For both teams it came down to execution and special teams. You know, we’ve just got to finish it. It’s a team effort, we had other opportunities to put it away and we couldn’t.”

Chance closed his career with a pair of touchdowns and an interception.

“Especially to be that close, it’s tough,” said Chance, who was part of the Pine Creek secondary that struggled to contain Johnson. “He’s a good quarterback. We made some mistakes with our defensive backs. And, I don’t know, they hurt us.

“Oh well, you can’t redo it.”