State 4A football title eludes Trojans

Longmont's AJ Shannon (21) is tackled by Heritage's Austin Colaizzi (56) during the class 4A state championships at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium on Saturday, Dec. 5, 2009. Heritage High School won the title, 42-28. For more photos, please visit www.dailycamera.com KASIA BROUSSALIAN

By Joshua Lindenstein, Longmont Ledger

Scot Coyle wasn`t looking to trade the elation of the past three weeks.It`s just that the sickness he felt after Saturday`s Class 4A state football championship game was tough to take.

The senior lineman and his Longmont Trojan teammates had just added another thriller to their 2009 postseason run. But this time they came up short in a 42-28 loss to Heritage at Invesco Field.

“In so many ways, it seems like it would hurt less if we lost in the first round,” Coyle said. “You just get so much hope and expectations of yourself and everybody else built up. It`s a terrible feeling.”

That the 11th-seeded Trojans thought the crown was theirs to win at halftime only contributed to the heartache afterward.

On a cold, sunny day, the Trojans overcame a 14-point first-quarter deficit to tie the game by halftime, and they seemed to have all the momentum. But after a first half that saw the two teams combine for 555 yards of offense, Longmont went stale in the second.

The title is the first in school history for No. 5 Heritage (13-1), which finished the season with 13 straight wins. Longmont was trying for its seventh crown in school history and first since 1991.

The Trojans finished the season 11-3 and made it further than most anyone ex-pected when the playoffs began. LHS knocked off No. 6 Liberty, No. 3 Pine Creek and No. 7 Wheat Ridge on the way to Invesco.

“To get this close, it`s definitely a disappointment, but we`ve got to also look at the silver lining,” Longmont quarterback Jake Johnson said. “It`s a great feeling to do what we did. It was a lot of fun for sure. We had a great ride. Nobody can take that away from us.”

In one of the top quarterback duels of the season, Johnson traded big play after big play with Heritage senior Mitch Griebel.

Johnson had 239 yards of offense by halftime, and Griebel had 152.

After a Longmont fumble helped fuel a 21-7 Heritage lead, Johnson rallied the Trojans with two touchdown drives and two field goal drives before halftime.

Down 28-18, Johnson rushed 23 yards up the middle to cut the deficit to 28-25 with 44 seconds before halftime. When Longmont`s Drew Edwards intercepted Griebel two plays later, Johnson went to work again, completing a pair of long passes to set up a 36-yard field goal by Joey Cinea as time expired on the second quarter.

But as even as the first half was — Heritage outgained Longmont 278-277 — the second was owned by the Eagles.

“We were going to go out and win that ball game,” LHS coach Doug Johnson said of the Trojans` mood going into halftime. “And it was a tale of two halves. We kind of got out of sync offensively and they put a couple plays together and moved the ball. That quarterback was hard on us all day long.”

Griebel finished with 131 yards and three touchdowns rushing and 143 yards and two touchdowns passing. But it was a play he made on defense that set the tone for the second half.

With Longmont looking to take its first lead of the game, Griebel picked off Johnson deep in Heritage territory on the third play of the third quarter.

The play was the start of a dismal second half for the Longmont offense, which had just 46 yards after halftime. Jake Johnson — Longmont`s catalyst the past three seasons — completed just one of nine passes in the second half.

“We knew we hadn`t played very well and we were still tied (at halftime),” Griebel said. “We knew we could come back and win and our defense stepped it up the second half.”

Griebel ran in from 5 yards out midway through the third quarter to make it 35-28, and he hit Shane Opitz for a 5-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth to make it 42-28.

Longmont`s last chance to cut into the lead ended on downs at the Eagle 18 with 6:30 play.

Heritage ate up the rest of the clock with 17 straight running plays.

Johnson finished with 137 yards and two touchdowns passing and 131 and a TD passing. Jay Knaus and Ryan Chopp caught touchdown passes for the Trojans.

Fullback Blair Zimmerman, meanwhile, added 121 yards and a score for Heritage, and Opitz caught nine passes for 122 yards and two scores.

“Our class, we`re still really proud of what we did,” Knaus said of getting LHS back to the title game for the first time in 18 years. “We set the stage for classes coming up. We set the bar high.

“The sun will rise tomorrow and life goes on.”