PUEBLO – It has been a long time coming, and some recent frustrations have made the wait feel longer, but the Centauri football team finally has its first state championship.
 
After finishing runners-up in both 2013 and 2017, and bowing out in the semifinals in each of the past three postseasons, the Centauri Falcons won 24-21 over three-time defending champion Limon on Saturday at the CSU-Pueblo Thunderbowl. Finally prevailing in a Class 1A state championship game to close a saga of coming so close was a special moment for this current group of Falcons and all those that came before them.
 
“It’s just something special we’ve been working towards for a long, long time,” Centauri senior Byron Shawcroft said. “It’s something for the community and something they’ve never had. So, I think it’s special for everybody to have it because this is the first one. It’s something I think that the little kids, parents, grandparents, everyone, will remember for the rest of their lives.”
 
Shawcroft was named Most Outstanding Player at the end of a classic state championship game between two excellent teams. Perhaps the biggest moment of the game, however, came from a far less likely source.
 
With 1 minute, 6 seconds left in Saturday’s game and the score tied, Centauri sophomore Kaleb Anderson made a field goal on 4^th-and-1 from the 3-yard line that put the Falcons up in the waning moments of the game and allowed them to hold off a late charge from a wounded Badgers team. It was the first field made field goal of the season for Anderson, who entered the game 0-1 on attempts.
 
“My brother, Sam Anderson, was in the state championship game four years ago and they had and opportunity to kick a field goal for the game and they didn’t do it,” Anderson said. “So when our coach came up to me and told me that I was going to be kicking, I was terrified. But it was the most amazing moment of my like and I knew I was going to make it.
 
“I was one hundred percent positive.”
 
The No. 2-seeded Falcons took the early lead on the top-seeded Badgers with an 87-yard touchdown run from Mason Claunch in the first minute of the second quarter. On the next drive, Centauri blocked a Limon punt and Zach Buhr returned the ball for a touchdown to give the Falcons a 14-0 lead with 9:54 left before halftime.
 
Limon got on the board via a touchdown pass from Trey Hines to Brady Rockwell with 6:56 left in the first half that sent the first 1A title game since 2015 that didn’t include Strasburg into halftime with Centauri up 14-7.  
 
“We knew Limon was good, well coached and had great kids,” Centauri head coach Kyle Forster said. “They’ve won three in a row and they’ve deserved it. We knew they were going to make a run but we also knew that if we played our game, we were going to have a shot at the end.”
 
On the first possession of the second half, Limon’s Jeremiah Leeper broke free for a long touchdown but Centauri blocked the point-after kick to hold onto a narrow 14-13 lead before Falcons senior Baron Holman scored to give the Falcons a 21-13 lead.
 
Late in the quarter, Limon quarterback Trey Hines left the game with an injury after getting taken down hard at the end of a spectacular run. Brady Rockwell replaced Hines and threw a touchdown pass to Gabe Schubarth. Leeper punched in the two-pointer to tie the game at 21-21 with 3:02 left in the third.
 
At the end of a near-scoreless fourth quarter, Anderson made his game-changing kick. Even without their starting quarterback, the Limon Badgers made their way down the field to set up a 37-yard Hail Mary but the Centauri defense knocked it down to end the game.
 
“I was really proud of our kids,” Limon head coach Mike O’Dwyer said. “We lost our quarterback and we moved a kid in there who hadn’t played there in a year and a half. I can’t say enough good things about our kids hanging in there and having the never-quit attitude. Every year is different and you take it with the group that you have.
 
“This group has been in four state championships and to be in four games like this, that’s an incredible feat. There’s a lot of really good programs out there that don’t get to do what we’ve been fortunate to do that last four years. It comes back to our kids, our community and school support. It’s a little tough to explain unless you’re in it and if you’re there, you get it.”
 
Limon football has 20 state titles in the program’s history.