FALCON — It was your typical, straight-ahead football game until Falcon and Palisade nearly gave a collective heart attack to every fan in the jam-packed stands.
The Falcons and Bulldogs were locked in a grudge match in the Class 3A state semifinals Saturday afternoon at Falcon Stadium, with the home team nursing a narrow lead late into the fourth quarter.
And the Falcons, undefeated and playing in the postseason for the first time in 15 years, ended up holding off Palisade 7-6.
But not before the Bulldogs scored their only touchdown in the final seconds of regulation, went for, and barely missed, the two-point conversion to take the lead, recovered the ensuing onside kick and attempted, and barely missed, a long field goal to win.
“We made it a little too exciting,” Falcon coach Jason Catron said.
Falcon (13-0), a program that won just six games the past two seasons, will play in the championship game for the first time Saturday against Berthoud.
Yards were hard to come by until Falcon’s first drive of the second half.
On a play designed to get everybody moving one way and the running back the other, Keenen Ballage found room in the middle before breaking a tackle and turning on the jets down the sideline for a 58-yard touchdown.
“All of our players go right and I go left on that play,” said Ballage, the reigning 4A 100-meter dash champion who finished with 97 yards rushing. “Hopefully nobody’s going to catch me.”
Raul Franco booted the extra point.
Palisade (10-3) started on Falcon’s 29 with 3:22 remaining, but Eric Perez started the series with one of his big sacks in the game.
“It was a perfect play call for me. I started licking my chops,” Perez said.
The Bulldogs kept pushing, and Travis Fehlman battled for a 3-yard touchdown run with 37.9 seconds remaining.
Palisade lined up for the win, and Jake Appling delivered a pass to Billy Logsdon, but Steven Falzon broke up the play.
But it wasn’t over. Logsdon recovered the onside kick, and Palisade reached Falcon’s 30. Jesse Kirstatter then missed a 47-yard field-goal try with 8.8 seconds left.
Palisade 0 0 0 6 — 6
Falcon 0 0 7 0 — 7
F – Ballage 58 run (Franco kick). P – Fehlman 3 run (pass failed).
