FORT COLLINS — It’s a fair argument: Through three weeks of football, the best player in Class 5A has been Bryan Peters.
The senior quarterback continued his early season roll Friday night and showcased himself in The Denver Post game of the week.
Bound for Nebraska to play baseball, Peters threw for two touchdowns and ran for another as Rocky Mountain handled Legacy 22-10 in the Front Range League.
In lifting the Lobos to 3-0, Peters had a terrific third quarter, notably a wild 78-yard run off a busted play against the Lightning (2-1), which entered the game ranked No. 7 in The Denver Post/9News 5A poll, but had another week of lethargic offense, assorted mistakes and poor tackling.
In all, Peters was 16-of-26 passing for 260 yards and ran for 130.
“I don’t know,” Peters said when asked who was dominating the class in the first month. “Yeah, it’s great to think that, but this is such a huge win for us.”
Said Rocky Mountain head coach Mark Brook: “Bryan’s a pretty special kid. He makes a lot of people look good and he’s fun to watch.”
No play was more fun for Lobos followers than inside the final minute of the third quarter. In shotgun formation, Peters mishandled the snap, but cruised through Lightning pursuit with ease. At least four Legacy players had clean shots at him, but Peters never went down, got to the near sideline and turned it up for a 78-yard score.
“I dropped the snap, felt them coming in, then just went,” he said.
Through three games, Peters has eight touchdown passes — he connected with Jake Stewart on a 10-yarder to cap the game’s opening drive and preceded his long scoring run with a 15-yarder to Michael Seidel — and three touchdowns rushing.
In addition, the Lobos’ fronts fared well, including against All-Colorado defensive end Nick Kasa, that made Brook take notice.
“I was extremely proud of our kids on both sides of the ball and that’s against a darned good football team,” he said.
On the other side, Legacy generated only one touchdown drive and killed multiple others with penalties or missed assignments.
“That first half killed us,” Lightning coach Wayne Voorhees said. “We’d have third-and-40 the one drive that we didn’t have penalties on, we scored a touchdown. I don’t know, we just get frustrated for whatever reason. One of the 11 kids (on the field) makes a mistake at the point of attack.”
Meanwhile, Brook and the Lobos sense big things in coming rounds.
“It’s a great energy boost for them, something to build on,” he said.
Legacy0 3 7 0 — 10
Rocky Mountain9 0 13 0 — 22
RM — Stewart 10 pass from Peters (kick failed). RM — FG Conti 24. L — FG Smith 35. RM — Seidel 15 pass from Peters (Conti kick). RM — Peters 78 run (kick failed).
