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Northglenn upsets Legacy

John Rosa, Special to the News

Published November 4, 2006 at midnight

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THORNTON - One will not find any bigger fans of the new Class 5A playoff format than the Northglenn football team.

In most years the Norse, who went 4-5 during the regular season, would be preparing to clean out their lockers.

Thanks to the new playoff system and an improbable fourth-quarter comeback Friday night, Northglenn is moving on to the second round.

Colin Nunley's 70-yard kick return for a touchdown with 2:25 to play lifted the 26th-seeded Norse to a 16-15 victory against seventh-seeded Legacy at Five Star Stadium.

Northglenn will play 10th-seeded Bear Creek in the second round.

"A lot of people were critics about this whole thing," Nunley said.

"They thought that none of the underdogs would win. We proved them wrong. I think -they'll keep it around because we deserve to be here, and I think that showed (Friday)."

After three and a half quarters of mistake-filled football, the final 7 minutes of the contest contained enough drama to make up for things.

After starting the game at tailback, Northglenn's Anthony Perkins switched to quarterback and led the Norse on their first touchdown drive, hitting Sean Ortega on an 11-yard scoring strike that gave them a 10-9 lead with 6:34 to play.

Legacy (7-3), which missed three field-goal attempts, responded with its best drive. The Lightning rode senior running back Joey Applehans down the field, and he scored on a 12-yard touchdown run with 2:48 to play. The two-point conversion attempt failed, but Legacy had a 15-10 lead.

The Lightning was flagged for being offside on the ensuing kickoff. On the second attempt, Legacy kicker Dustin Moser hit a low line drive that bounced down the center of the field until Nunley picked it up at his own 30.

Nunley broke up the middle and nearly went untouched as he raced to the end zone to put the Norse back on top 16-15.

"The coaches told me to let it go if it was too deep, but it came to me, and I picked it up and went right up the field," Nunley said. "I just did what I could."

After Aaron Oakes returned the ensuing kickoff 44 yards, Legacy was set up near midfield.

The Lightning looked like it had struck on the first play from scrimmage when Applehans broke free for an apparent 53-yard touchdown, but a holding call at the line of scrimmage wiped it out.

Legacy's last gasp came up short when a pass from Nick Edwards to Applehans was stopped for no gain on fourth down with less than a minute to play.

Northglenn 0 3 0 13 — 16

Legacy 9 0 0 6 — 15

First quarter

L — Nick Bauman sacks John Harshman in end zone for safety.

L — Gehrick Dickson 15 pass from Nick Edwards (Kip Smith kick)

Second quarter

N — Charles Festi 22 kick

Fourth quarter

N — Sean Ortega 11 pass from Anthony Perkins (Festi kick)

L — Joey Applehans 12 run (run fail)

N — Colin Nunley 70 kick return (run fail)

Individual statistics

Rushing

N — Anthony Perkins 17-62, Slvador Vargas Castro 1-5, Sean Ortega 1-0, John Harshman 8-minus 21. L — Joey Applehans 25-108, Jake Levin 5-35, David Sather 2-18, Brian Toth 2-10, Nick Edwards 2-minus 6.

Passing

N — Harshman 5-14-1-16, Perkins 4-6-0-43. L — Edwards 10-16-1-135.

Receiving

N — Jackson Medina 5-3, Colin Nunley 2-18, Ortega 1-11, Perkins 1-minus 6. L — , Levin 2-59, Gehrick Dickson 2-29, Skip Carlson 2-16, Bryson Romero 1-16, Luke Bublitz 1-8, Travis Sears 1-7, Applehans 1-0.