Victory bell at midnight: Poudre football overcomes lengthy lightning delay to beat Castle View
Poudre High School’s football team overcame a lot Friday night. Let's run through the list:
A nearly 2-hour lightning delay before kickoff
Five turnovers
Losing a starting defensive back to a shoulder injury, plus injuries that limited two other key players
But just about the time the clock struck midnight, the Impalas were ringing the victory bell at their school following a 14-10 win over visiting Castle View at French Field.
“It was a tough win,” senior Jordan Niesent said. “We really came together at the end.”
Here are a few key takeaways from the Impalas' win in their home opener.
Poudre High School's Jordan Niesent’s 3 interceptions power team
Niesent, a senior who plays both cornerback and safety, intercepted three passes. Safety Jones Thomas picked off a fourth to lead a Poudre defense that bent often but only broke once.
Niesent's first interception came at Poudre’s own 5-yard line late in the second quarter, ending a scoring threat. His second was early in the fourth quarter on a third-and-long pass by Castle View quarterback Nate Schmidt from deep in his own territory.
His third clinched the victory for the Impalas (1-1) with 1:18 left in the game, even though the subsequent 55-yard return for an apparent pick-six was negated by a pair of penalties on the return.
“We had great coverage, great defense the whole game,” Niesent said. “Only gave up 10 points.”
Castle View’s only touchdown came on its first offensive possession of the game on 42-yard run by Joe Ursetta, tying the score 7-7 at the time.
The Poudre defense stiffened up when it needed to get stops the most and used six takeaways – two fumble recoveries and four interceptions – to offset five turnovers by its own offense.
Castle View used one of its two interceptions – to go along with three fumble recoveries – to set up a 28-yard field goal by Cooper Harrison in the final seconds of the first half and take a 10-7 lead into the locker room.
Impalas football find a 1-2 punch
The Impalas were able to run the ball effectively throughout the game, getting a long scamper from Niesent on the first possession to set up a 22-yard TD pass from quarterback Quentin Harms to Logan Correll. Niesent had several runs of 10 or more yards. He finished around the 100-yard mark even while splitting carries with Saje Camirand, who also ran for about 100 yards, including a 15-yard go-ahead TD early in the fourth quarter.
Both were breaking tackles and carrying defenders down the field on their backs while surging forward for big gains well after they were first hit by defenders. Harms mixed in just enough passes and the occasional quarterback run to keep the defense honest.
“Our offense was moving,” Niesent said. “We’ve got to clean up our offense a little bit, and we’ll be just fine.”
Niesent and Camirand also both start on defense, so the 1-2 punch “gives me a little rest, gives him a little rest and keeps us 100%,” Camirand said.
Impalas bounce back to win home opener
There are a lot of things that went wrong for Poudre in this game, its home opener.
But second-year coach Eric Tonkin wasn’t about to dwell on them right away. Not after a game that didn’t start until 8:50 p.m. because of a lightning delay and ended after 11:15 p.m.
He was urging players to get their gear together and get back to Poudre to ring the victory bell as soon as possible, knowing that might not be until midnight or later.
It was time to celebrate. The win over a Castle View team that had defeated Doherty in its opener felt a lot better than the Impalas’ season-opening 40-8 loss a week earlier at Rock Canyon.
“We made a lot of mistakes, but it feels better making mistakes and still winning the game than making mistakes and trying to figure out what happened on the way back,” Tonkin said.
“It was not a pretty game, but we found a way.”
Rocky Mountain's game to be completed Saturday at French Field
Rocky Mountain’s game at Cherokee Trail was stopped in progress by lightning Friday night and will be completed Saturday at French Field, beginning at 11:30 a.m.
The game got off to a late start because an earlier game at Cherokee Trail’s Legacy Stadium ran long, then was halted by a lightning delay that led to a postponement.
The Cherry Creek School District didn’t have a field available to resume the game Saturday, so it was moved to the Lobos’ home field in Fort Collins.
Play will pick up where it left off in the second quarter, with Cherokee Trail leading 6-0, Rocky Mountain athletic director Conrad Crist said.
Windsor bounces back to beat Longmont
Windsor’s defense limited host Longmont to just 34 yards on the ground in a 27-6 win over the Trojans at Everly-Montgomery Field.
Windsor (1-1) raced out to an early 14-0 lead after one quarter and added another touchdown in the third quarter for a 21-0 lead before allowing Longmont’s only score midway through the fourth quarter. The Wizards, who suffered a heartbreaking 35-34 loss at Mead in their season opener a week earlier, tacked on another touchdown in the final minutes.
Longmont fell to 0-2.
Windsor’s next two games are at home vs. local opponents – Thursday against Fort Collins, and Fossil Ridge on Friday, Sept. 16.
Kelly Lyell reports on CSU, high school and other local sports and topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, follow him on Twitter @KellyLyell and find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Poudre High School football overcomes turnovers to beat Castle View
