BROOMFIELD — Ryland Snow could make a killing this summer ploughing fields.
Broomfield hitched its wagon to the 5-foot-9, 190-pound senior Friday night just like the Eagles have all season as they ran over Sierra in the first round of the Class 4A state football playoffs.
Snow carried the ball 39 times for 228 yards and scored two touchdowns as the second-seeded Eagles ground out a 33-14 victory at Elizabeth Kennedy Stadium.
“We knew coming in the game we were going to have to run the ball and do whatever it takes to win,” Snow said. “So we do what we did and got a victory.”
The Eagles (11-0) took a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter and held off the 15th-seeded Stallions.
Eagles fullback Chip Rollert ran the ball 14 times for 79 yards and two touchdowns, and receiver Chris Ongarato had a 42-yard touchdown catch and run in the first quarter to get the Eagles out of the first round of the postseason for the first time since 2004.
“We have a great offensive line. Give all the credit to them,” Rollert said.
The Eagles, finalists in 2001 and four-time champions, will play the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 7 Montrose (6-4) and No. 10 Fountain-Fort Carson (9-1).
Sierra (8-3), in the playoffs for the first time since 1998 and loaded with juniors, paid dearly for a few early mistakes.
After falling behind 7-0, the Stallions marched to the Eagles’ 5-yard line but were stopped when Mick Ramsey intercepted Latrell Burrows in the end zone. Penalties and a sack on third down killed Sierra’s next drive.
But the Stallions, who were riding a six-game winning streak during which they had averaged 38.8 points a game, finally got going on Taurean Jones’ 51-yard touchdown run with 8:55 left in the second quarter.
“Their speed is not rivaled in 4A,” said Eagles coach Gary Davies, who was an offensive coordinator at Sierra for four seasons in the early 1980s. “They’re every bit what I thought they’d be.”
Dontre Walker scored on a 10-yard run to open the third quarter as the Stallions cut the deficit to 21-14.
Broomfield answered with Rollert’s second touchdown and salted the game away with a 3-yard score by Snow in the fourth quarter.
“It feels good coming out here and making it to the playoffs my senior year,” Sierra defensive back Mark Sterling said.
Sierra 0 6 8 0 – 14
Broomfield 14 7 6 6 – 33
B – Rollert 11 run (McClaskey kick). B – Ongarato 42 pass from MacDonald (McClaskey kick). B – Snow 8 run (McClaskey kick). S – Jones 51 run (run failed). S – Walker 10 run (Burrows run). B – Rollert 15 run (kick failed). B – Snow 3 run (run failed).
