BROOMFIELD — For the past five seasons, Holy Family football could only dream of beating its rival, Roosevelt. But on Friday night on their own turf, Nick Leopardi and Kaden Hopkin were the Roughriders’ worst nightmare in their 41-26 victory.
The sophomore tandem combined for not one, not two, but three flashy touchdowns tallying 54, 62 and 43 yards. All the Roughriders could do was watch as Leopardi flew down the field. He ended his night with 200 yards, while Hopkin threw for 315.
They’ve been waiting a while to bust out a game like this.
“Me and Kaden have played some seventh grade football together, and we’ve always been there,” Leopardi said. “All summer, we’ve just been working on simple plays, and it really paid off tonight. Tonight was a breakthrough, definitely, but we’re still going to work, and we ain’t done yet.”
Youth looks good on this Tiger squad, which was ranked No. 6 in Class 3A in this week’s . The Roughriders were 3A No. 4.
The entire night boiled down to big plays.
Leopardi and Hopkin connected for a 54-yard score just 85 seconds into play, then Holy Family’s Logan Welch intercepted Roosevelt quarterback Jasiah Ramirez on the very next play. Iker Alfaro turned that turnover into a 8-yard touchdown only three minutes later, putting the Tigers up 14-0 midway through the first quarter.
The Roughriders ran through the Tigers throughout the rest of the first half, building up a 26-14 advantage. Hopkin and Leopardi put one more score on the board to stanch the bleeding a bit before the break.
“We knew we were built for (that moment),” Leopardi said. “We were trained to fight adversity. We knew there was going to be adversity, and we just handled it, and we competed, and we took that next step.”
Holy Family’s defense brought a tourniquet in the second half.
Rocco Bertagnolli recovered a Roosevelt fumble on the opening kickoff. Not long after, kicker Oliver Hansen handed the Tigers the lead with consecutive 41- and 19-yard field goals, and they didn’t let the Roughriders touch the scoreboard from there on out.
Bertagnolli, who added an interception toward the end of the game, said “we got my revenge” during the postgame celebration. Last year, he let Rooseveltap game-winner slip past him.
“We just talked about being able to perform in pressure situations,” head coach Mike Gabriel said. “We’re young, so for those kids to come out in the second half and do what they did was pretty impressive. We just put more people around the line of scrimmage and knew that if we stopped their run, we had a chance.”
The Tigers improved to 2-0 after blasting past Northridge with a 49-6 showing last week, while Roosevelt fell to 1-1. Holy Family will take the next week off before setting their sights on Lewis-Palmer on Sept. 19.
Roosevelt running back Milo Pascual, who ended his night with a touchdown, knows that no matter the outcome, a game like this only serves to elevate his small classification.
“They haven’t beat us since 2019,” he said. “It’s been a grind for a while now. 3A isn’t a soft, puny football division. It never has been. It’s always been a battle with everybody. It’s always been something to look up to. It’s always been something to see and watch.”
