Rough first quarter dooms Niwot football in season opener

Holy Family's 43-point first-quarter left little hope for the Niwot Cougars in Friday's football season opener. Niwot would fall to the Tigers, 50-14, under the lights at Mike G. Gabriel Stadium in Broomfield.

Prior to the game, Niwot and Holy Family honored their senior classes in front of about 175 fans (mostly parents and a slew of students) per team.

Head coach Nik Blume coached his first game at Niwot with over half of his roster consisting of freshmen. He said that his freshmen's need to adapt to the game speed of varsity football was a big takeaway from week one.

"We're super young and we have a big mountain to climb moving forward as far as game speed," Blume said. "But we did a lot of good things tonight. When I look at the film, and I think when our coaches look at the film, we had kids in position. It's not like we're not making reads, we're just a little slow right now and we'll find some solutions for that. We're going to look like a different team soon."

Holy Family's offense scored a touchdown within one minute of the start time, and its defense recovered a botched Niwot snap in the end zone soon after. Niwot's senior quarterback Ayden Bartko misread the defense and allowed a pick-6 on the next drive and the score was 21-0 less than halfway through the first quarter. Holy Family tacked on two rushing and passing touchdowns and held Niwot scoreless in the first half.

Despite the 50-14 final score, it wasn't a stretch to pin this game as a tale of two halves. Holy Family led by 50 at halftime and Niwot scored 14 unanswered points in the second half.

"The second half of the game was great," Bartko said. "We started out really slow. We didn't come out as fast as we should have. I think part of that goes with we haven't played a game in 11 months but there's really no excuse there, because Holy Family hasn't played in 11 months either."

Bartko flipped the momentum halfway through the third-quarter when he hit junior wide receiver Craig Wright down the sideline for an 80-yard touchdown. After the game, Wright said, "It felt great. It was my first day starting so definitely felt good."

Niwot missed a two-point conversion but was finally on the scoreboard. Bartko said he has been impressed with Wright's work ethic over the summer and felt confident going to him for a big play.

"He's one of our fastest guys and we were expecting it," Bartko said. "We should have had one at the very first play the game, I think I overthrew him just a little bit. But we knew he was going to be there so we came back to it and obviously it was there and he scored a touchdown. I was very proud of him for it."

Niwot scored again early in the fourth quarter after the Cougar defense snatched a Holy Family fumble. Bartko found senior Ashton Campie to set up a first-and-goal and then connected with sophomore wide receiver Ben Classen for a touchdown. Looking to get back in the game, senior wide receiver Cooper Ackerman caught Bartko's pass for a two-point conversion. Niwot's passing game could be a bright spot in the shortened season.

"Ayden Bartko played a whale of a game," Blume said. "(He) did some really good things (and) continues to put guys on his shoulders and I think Cooper Ackman did some really good things tonight as well."

Blume was pleased that his team played a more solid game in the second half but is still focused on improving Niwot's first-half deficiencies.

"We played much better in the second half, a little bit more fundamentally sound," Blume said. "(We) finally got comfortable, got settled in (and) made some great reads. Those are always things to be excited about. But we took our lumps tonight and that's what we'll be focused on (which) is how do we smooth those out so we can be a better club moving forward?"

Niwot will search for its first win of the season on Friday, Oct. 16 at Riverdale Ridge High School at 6 p.m.

(See photos from Senior Night here: https://www.lhvc.com/photos/10_09_2020)