First half turnovers doom Cougars football in third straight loss

Through six games this season, Niwot Head Coach Dylan Hollingsworth has been plagued by a mystery.

“This team plays so differently from half to half,” an exasperated Hollingsworth said. “It’s like night and day.”

In last Friday night’s conference opener against the Brighton Bulldogs, the Cougars were once again victims of this dichotomy. After four first half turnovers gave Brighton a 14-point lead at the half, Niwot scored on its first two possessions of the third quarter, and seemed to be mounting a comeback against a Brighton team that had yet to win a game. But in the end, the deficit proved too much to overcome, and Niwot fell to the Bulldogs 21-14.

Coach Hollingsworth said he is frustrated by his team’s first half sloppiness.

“We’ve got to find a way to limit mistakes in the first half and start a game strong,” he said.

Careless play afflicted both teams during most of the first half. In the first quarter alone, Brighton botched a fake punt attempt, and then negated an interception by throwing one of their own on the very next play. They missed a field goal early in the second quarter, and were generally ineffective on offense for most of the half.

Not to be outdone, Niwot lost two turnovers in the first quarter, and then gave up a long touchdown run as time expired. In the second quarter, the Cougars lost two more turnovers, including a fumble with just a minute remaining, which Brighton promptly turned into seven points. Once again, the Cougars found themselves down two touchdowns going into the break.

For the third straight game, Senior Trae Gomez started as quarterback for the Cougars, though he was spelled from time to time by junior Matt Baun. Hollingsworth said he will continue to evaluate his quarterback situation on a week-to-week basis, and it’s likely that both Gomez and Baun will continue to platoon.

Brighton received the ball to start the second half, and wasted no time putting seven more points on the board. In just three plays, the Bulldogs zoomed down the field for a 15-yd TD run. Niwot retaliated immediately, using just three more plays to get sophomore running back Jeremy Hollingsworth into the end zone. With just 90 seconds of the third quarter gone, each team had scored a touchdown.

Niwot struck again on its next series, after a botched punt attempt and penalty by Brighton gave the Cougars the ball deep in Bulldog territory. After just three plays, Gomez connected with junior receiver Nate Nielsen for a Niwot TD. Kicker James Lerner added the extra point, and Niwot found itself just seven points back with a quarter and a half still remaining in the game.

Unfortunately, the Cougars were not able to capitalize on their third quarter momentum. Despite two more trips to the red zone, Niwot did not score again during the game, and lost 21-14.

“The biggest disappointment was the turnovers,” Hollingsworth said. “We lost six out of seven, and that’s not ok. You can’t win if you do that.”

Hollingsworth said the team also had “major communications issues” in the huddle, which hurt them in goal line situations.

“I don’t know what it was, but we’ll take care of it this week,” he said.

Next week, the Cougars will be back at Everly Montgomery Field to take on the Loveland Indians. Loveland, which was ranked third in the CHSAA coaches poll before losing to Broomfield last weekend, is known for primarily for their stout defense.

“They’re very sound in what they do,” Hollingsworth cautioned. “We have to be on the top of our game.”

Brighton 21, Niwot 14

Niwot (3-3) 0 0 14 0 — 28

Brighton (1-5) 7 7 7 0 — 21