Strasburg – It is right there to see, as plain as black and white, the Limon Badgers’ colors.
It’s going to take a great effort to unseat the two-time defending Class 1A Colorado football champions, with the class completing its regular season.
Limon turned The Denver Post game of the week into a laugher Saturday afternoon at Dewey Winter Field with a 62-21 drubbing of host Byers that decided the South Central League championship and underlined the Badgers as – once again – the team to beat.
It was the third league title in succession for the Badgers (9-0, 6-0 league) and their 35th victory in a row that tied them with Haxtun (1989-92) and Simla (1984-87) for sixth in state history.
“Hopefully, it keeps going,” said Badgers quarterback and Denver Post reigning 1A player of the year Tyson Liggett. “It’s there, but we don’t talk about it much. We do our best, but once in a while it comes up.”
While coach Mike O’Dwyer said he’s proud of the way his Badgers have handled the winning streak and all of the attention that has come with it, now’s not the time to revel in it.
“I was just disappointed in some of the plays we gave up defensively and way too many mistakes turnover-wise,” he said. “The mistakes? We can’t have them. It’s the time of year when you can’t have them and we will address it.”
The coach referred to three turnovers in the first half and the strong play of Byers junior quarterback Bobby Adamson, who had some success picking apart the Limon defense after his receivers began with a serious case of the drops.
However, none of the above really mattered as the Badgers rolled to a 49-14 halftime lead, generally did whatever they wanted on offense and could have won by an even wider margin.
As it was, Adamson took the opening snap and got leveled by Preston Mease and L.D. Meier. Mease picked off the ball in mid-air and returned it to Byers’ 15-yard line. Meier scored on a 1-yard plunge two plays later.
Limon led 21-0 after just four plays from scrimmage as Liggett returned a punt 65 yards for a touchdown and, after an interception by Tyler Ververs, threw an 18-yard scoring pass to Steve Martin.
The Badgers laid it on thicker in the second quarter as Tyler Rohrbaugh scored on a 1-yarder, Liggett added scoring runs of 26 and 49 yards – the latter rush had a crisp cut in traffic that froze multiple Bulldogs (8-1, 5-1) – and Liggett connected on a 38-yard screen pass to Meier.
“They’re tremendous athletes,” Bulldogs coach David Dodge said of the Badgers. “They’re very well-coached and as hard as we played, as I’m proud of our kids, we got ‘out-athleted’ and they were more physical than we were.”
Dodge had another problem – earlier in the week, he flew to Seward, Neb., to be with his son, Dustin, who had to have an emergency appendectomy. His son is recovering, and the coach made it to the game 45 minutes before kickoff.
Now, Limon sets its sights on the 1A preliminaries and a possible third consecutive title.
“We have to take it one game at a time,” O’Dwyer said. “We have to respond. We’re going to see other teams like (Byers). We have to get things corrected before next week.
“(But) other than those few things, I think we’re ready to go.”
Winning streak
Most consecutive games won in succession in Colorado schoolboy football:
48: Stratton, 1992-96
45: Longmont, 1988-92
42: Limon, 1959-62
39: Salida, 1933-36
37: Palisade, 1994-96
35: Limon, 2003-05, Haxtun, 1989-92; Simla, 1984-87
Limon 21 28 13 0 – 62
Byers 0 14 7 0 – 21
L – Meier 1 run (kick blocked). L – Liggett 65 punt return (Rohrbaugh run). L – Martin 18 pass from Liggett (Bruno kick). L – Rohrbaugh 11 run (kick failed). B – Miller 2 pass from Adamson (Sauer kick). L – Liggett 26 run (Ververs pass from Liggett). B – Miller 5 pass from Adamson (Sauer kick). L – Liggett 49 run (Meaney kick). L – Meier 38 pass from Liggett (Bruno kick). L – Liggett 14 run (Bruno kick). B – Turecek 30 pass from Adamson (Sauer kick). L – Meier 62 pass interception (kick failed).
