1A Football: Limon Earns Record 22nd State Title

PUEBLO – The king of Class 1A football once again is Limon High School.

The Badgers won their second-consecutive state crown with a 50-13 victory over Strasburg Saturday afternoon at the ThunderBowl on the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus.

Limon senior QB Jordan Rockwell led the way accounting for four touchdowns – two rushing and two passing. For his performance, Rockwell was chosen the National Football Foundation’s Most Outstanding Player.

“This (state championship) feels great,” the 5-foot-10, 155-pound Rockwell said. “I’m just blessed to be at Limon, and I’m blessed to have the coaches and teammates I have. That was our goal all year to go out on top and I’m just so thankful for this opportunity.”

Limon finished the season 13-0 – for the second year in a row – and won the school’s Colorado prep record 22nd state football championship and fifth in the last six years – 2018-20, and 2022-23. Strasburg finished the season with a 10-3 record and two of those losses were to Limon. The Indians also dropped a 49-21 decision to the Badgers on Sept. 8.

The last time Limon lost was a 24-21 setback to Centauri in the Class 1A state title game on Nov. 27, 2021.

“I always tell our kids understate and overperform and that’s what our kids do,” said Limon coach Mike O’Dwyer, who has led the Badgers to their last eight state football titles. “They just come out and they perform. Every year is different, and every year is a process, and our kids understand the process and it takes time for us to kind of work into what we are.

“This year we weren’t as deep as we have been and I think this group really just got better, and better and better as the year went on.”

The Badgers had no intention of losing Saturday as they came out ready to play from the opening kickoff.

Then, in the first quarter, when Limon needed a clutch play, Rockwell delivered.

On 4th down and 5 at the Strasburg 5-yard line, Rockwell ran around the right corner and bulled his way into the end zone for the score. After a Strasburg penalty, he proceeded to run up the middle for the two-point conversion, giving the Badgers an 8-0 lead at 4:25 of the first quarter.

“That was a big thing,” Rockwell said about the fourth down TD. “That’s what coach (O’Dwyer) preaches all year to set the tone. That set the tone for the rest of the game. We came out hard. We came out with emotion, no fear and that helped a lot.”

Rockwell extended the lead to 15-0 with a 35-yard scoring pass to Lance Beedy with 22 seconds left in the first quarter.

With Strasburg reeling, Rockwell deflated the Indians’ confidence even more when he smashed into the end zone on sneak on fourth and inches, pushing the Badgers ahead 22-0.

The Badgers kept their momentum rolling with a 1-yard score by Keon Bandy to go up 29-0 with 42 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

“Our offense and defense play are a credit to my assistant coaches,” O’Dwyer said. “They do a great job.”

Bandy got Limon back in business in the third when he intercepted a pass from Strasburg QB Landen Martin at 9:24 mark at the Strasburg 35-yard line.

Limon dialed up the Rockwell-Beedy connection again this time from 17 yards out for a TD, making the score 36-0 in favor of the Badgers.

Strasburg finally got on the scoreboard when QB Martin fired a 9-yard TD to Jorge Parra with 3:27 left in the third quarter to get within 36-7. Limon, however, answered with a 3-yard scoring sweep by Lohgan Bottjer less than three minutes later to put the Badgers ahead 43-7.

Bottjer completed the scoring with a 1-yard run at 4:17 of the fourth.

“This is a program thing,” O’Dwyer said. “I want as much success for our girls’ and boys’ basketball team and wrestling team and our track team and baseball team because it takes a whole program. You can’t do this without a program. I think at Limon everybody understands that our expectation is to win but doing it the right way as we go. I think I have tremendous young men and I could not be prouder of this group for what they are as young men, not just as football players.”