Broomfield – Just when it looked like Littleton would live up to its undefeated record, Kyle Kaiser stepped in … and went 104 yards the other way.
Broomfield’s senior intercepted a Joe Vigil pass 4 yards deep in the end zone Friday night and sprinted untouched to simultaneously break the Lions’ momentum and their win streak.
Broomfield toppled Littleton 28-14 in a Class 4A Skyline game at Elizabeth Kennedy Field to win its third consecutive game after two close losses. The Eagles have scored nine first-half touchdowns in a row in the past two games.
“After a couple of losses we stepped it up. … Those two losses, they were hard,” said Kaiser, who hauled in two long passes from quarterback Tyler McBride, including a 31-yarder for the Eagles’ first touchdown.
Broomfield (4-2, 3-0 Skyline), which lost to Legacy and Mountain View by a total of seven points, is tied with undefeated Monarch atop the league standings.
Littleton (5-1, 2-1) dug itself a hole with turnovers on its first two drives, and the Eagles turned them into 14 points. The Lions had three turnovers in the game.
“Take away those three turnovers and there’s your 21 points. They took advantage of our mistakes,” Littleton coach Chad Koepke said. “Records are very deceiving.”
Broomfield led 21-0 at halftime, thanks to the McBride-Kaiser connection – “That absolutely set the tone,” McBride said – and two short scoring runs by Ryland Snow.
But the Lions found some life in the third quarter when Lance Hollandsworth hauled in a 9-yard touchdown pass from Vigil to get on the board.
Things looked even better for the Lions when Derek Kargo picked off McBride and ran to Broomfield’s 8-yard line with 2:53 remaining in the third quarter.
However, on Littleton’s first play after Kargo’s interception, Vigil dropped back and threw a floater to the middle of the end zone, into Kaiser’s hands.
“I jumped in front of the ball. I got a good break on it,” Kaiser said.
“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Koepke said.
Hollandsworth caught another touchdown pass for Littleton with less than two minutes to play.
McBride completed 6-of-10 passes for 102 yards, and the Eagles finished with 234 total yards.
Vigil connected on 18-of-32 attempts for 158 yards, most of those in the second half. Chris Romero caught eight passes for 70 yards.
Littleton 0 0 7 7 – 14
Broomfield 14 7 7 0 – 28
B – Kaiser 31 pass from McBride (Herring kick). B – Snow 7 run (Herring kick). B – Snow 2 run (Herring kick). L – Hollandsworth 9 pass from Vigil (Barth kick). B – Kaiser 104 interception return (Herring kick). L – Hollandsworth 2 pass from Vigil (Barth kick).
