PUEBLO — Mead senior Corby Tecu spent much of Saturday afternoon’s Class 3A football title game running through tacklers on his way to a two-touchdown performance.
All that was missing was the storybook ending.
Fort Morgan quarterback Briggs Wheatley led a late go-ahead touchdown drive at CSU-Pueblo’s ThunderBowl and David Keller’s interception with 10 seconds remaining sealed the 21-17 win for the Mustangs, who claimed their first football title since 1999.
As the final seconds washed away, players and coaches from Fort Morgan sprinted out onto the field and piled into a mess of happiness.
Mead coach Jason Klatt got his team together and did his best to provide perspective on what just happened. “The best group of guys in terms of being unselfish,” Klatt said. “And last year’s group was much the same. So, they really wanted to finish the job for last year’s group. But you know what? I think they did. I think we’ve accomplished our purpose and our purpose of being together and learning what it is to be a man of character.”
Ka’ili Casco gave Mead a 17-14 lead with 7:40 remaining, setting the stage for Fort Morgan’s talented southpaw quarterback, Wheatley, to lead his team to the championship.
With one big throw after another from Wheatley, the Mustangs moved down the field with the clock bleeding away. Wheatley converted on fourth-and-5 with a completion to Brayden Fajardo at the sticks past midfield. He found Chase Reding on a third-and-8 with an 11-yard strike inside the 20.
He capped the scoring march with his legs, surging through the line for a 6-yard touchdown to make it 21-17 with 3:57 remaining.
Mead’s final drive looked promising but was tainted with three penalties. Mead moved inside Fort Morgan’s 35, then moved back a bit with another flag. With 15 seconds and ticking, Fort Morgan’s Keller leaped up to snag quarterback Gavin Garrettson’s throw inside the 20 to end the game.
“We were on the right side of it, the right side of it, the right side of it, and then you’re on the wrong side of it,” Klatt said. “That’s the game of football. Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way.”
Tecu broke a 7-7 halftime tie, scoring his second touchdown midway through the third quarter. The Mavericks had forced a three-and-out on the Mustangs’ opening possession after the break and marched down the field. Tecu then pinballed off a defender into the end zone on a fourth-and-1 from the 2.
Fort Morgan responded with scoring drives on its next two possessions. Frank Ortega ran through a giant hole for his second scoring run of the day to tie things at 14 with 2:48 left in the third. Then, after holding Mead to a field goal after its 12-play drive, the Mustangs drove 65 yards in 11 plays for the winning touchdown.
“It’s not the way you want to finish but at the end of the day I’m here with my best friends,” Tecu said. “There’s no other place I want to be. And there’s no other team or city I want to represent.”
Mead’s run to the championship was the school’s fourth title game appearance over the last 14 months. The softball program went to the 4A championship in the fall of 2020 before falling to Holy Family. The basketball team won in March and the volleyball team finished runner-up in May.
