Light rain came down as the Legacy Broncos came in to warm up for their upcoming game.  The crowds filled the stands to support their team despite the wet and cold weather.  Former starting quarterback, Kennedy Jones, wouldn’t let his broken leg make him miss his team’s playoff game and was present to show his support.  The coin toss was decided and the Broncos went to take last words from head coach, Chris Melson.  Knowing it was a win or go home situation, the team rallied together for one last chant then took the field under the Friday night lights.

The Legacy Broncos took on the fourth ranked Texas team, the Denton Guyer Wildcats, in the second round of the playoffs.  The Wildcat offense, which had been averaging 56 points a game, started with the ball.  J.W. Walsh connected on four out of six of his passes on their first drive, converting a fourth and six with a nine yard pass to wide receiver Brendon Wright and capping off the drive with a 16 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Quentin Gardner. The Wildcats scored three unanswered touchdowns on their next three possessions. The Broncos had been shut out, and were down 28-0.

“I was thinking that we needed to get that ball back,” defensive end and junior, Kole Knutson said. “They were getting a short field so the only thing we could really do is get turn overs and help our offense out.”

On their fourth drive, the Bronco offense was finally able to find the end zone when quarterback, Quentin Hasten, completed a 36 yard touchdown pass to wide receiver, Josh Doctson, before the end of the half.  The Wildcats retaliated by scoring another touchdown, making the halftime score 35-7. Down four possessions at the start of the third quarter, the offense passed often to conserve as much time on the clock as possible.  On their second drive, running back, Cameron Davis, fumbled into the Denton Guyer end zone.  The fumble was recovered by the Wildcats, who turned the turnover into another touchdown.

“Football is a game of inches,” safety and senior, Joe Musselman said. “Big plays are really something that can separate you from winning or losing a ball game.  We didn’t make enough big plays that night.”

After recovering a Wildcat fumble, the Broncos took the ball 36 yards to the end zone, capping it off with a six yard touchdown rush by running back Kenan Ford, 12.  Later in the fourth, Hasten threw a short pass to Ford, who broke four Wildcat tackles and took it 89 yards for a touchdown with 2:11 left in the fourth quarter.  The game would end with Legacy on the losing side, 21-42.

“During the game I thought we could come back,” wide receiver and senior, David Miller said. “If they could make those big plays, we could too.  We just needed to make a run and make some things happen or at least make it respectful. We weren’t the better team that day.”

Although the loss ended the Bronco’s playoff run, many of the players and coaches had a sense of pride on the outcome of the game and of how they played.

“After the game you look back at the things you could have done differently to win the ball game, but you can’t do anything about it now,” Musselman said. “It’s hard losing like that, but they’re a very good team.”

The Broncos finished their district season (5-2), as well as won their first round playoff game against Fort Worth Eastern Hills 42-21.  Despite entering 5A next year, expectations from players and coaches are high and signal that they are ready to begin a new season.

“I think we could perform really well next year,” Knutson said. “We have really good people coming up. We need to focus on ourselves right now and grow more than we did last year.”