COLORADO SPRINGS – When the Class 4A football playoffs bracket is released over the weekend, neither Palmer nor Liberty will be on it. Yet, on a crisp Friday night at Garry Berry Stadium, both teams took the field determined to come away victorious.
For Palmer, it has only happened once this year, a 35-9 win over Mitchell in Week 1. For Liberty, a win has been evasive since the season began back in August.
The previous results didn’t matter. Every player on each sideline wanted to contribute. They wanted to fight.
Ultimately, that’s what high school football is about. The fight.
It was Palmer getting the 23-14 win to wrap up the season. For many kids on both teams, Monday could be the start of prepping for the next season. It could be basketball, wrestling or hockey.
They could just be students for the remainder of the school year.
Regardless of where they are Monday morning, they don’t have a single regret over giving their all for their final football fight.
“We’ve been telling the guys ever since league play started that we had to just keep fighting,” Palmer coach Nick Urbaniak said. “We’ve been so close. We would see it on film. It was the small things that we weren’t doing right and we finally put it all together.”
The Terrors (2-8 overall, 1-4 I-25) got on the board by sacking Liberty quarterback Aidan Swanson in the end zone for a safety. The Lancers (0-10, 0-5) responded by taking advantage of a few penalties to get inside the five-yard line before Swanson punched it in the end zone.
Palmer quarterback Thomas Pickern eventually worked into a rhythm and threw three touchdown passes that blanketed the second and third quarters. The Lancers were down 23-6 but they were determined to finish the fight.
They cut the lead to nine on a touchdown pass from Swanson to Kaleb Bullard. The defense also started clamping down by getting consistent pressure on Pickern and limiting his ability to find his receivers on the short crossing routes that had been so effective early in the game.
As effective as the Lancers were defensively in the second half, the offense struggled to sustain long drives. Swanson had the ball back in his hands early in the fourth quarter, but penalties and a couple of sacks kept forcing Liberty to punt the ball back to the Terrors.
“Give credit to Palmer,” Liberty coach Erick Gossage said. “They kept battling and our kids battled too. Football comes down to who can make plays, and it usually comes down to five plays. Whoever wins those five plays, wins the game.”
From there, the clock became the more worrisome opponent for Liberty. The Lancers forced Palmer into a 4thand 30, but a good punt and a sack once again left them with a tough task to continue cutting into the lead.
Time eventually ran out with an emotional wave sweeping through the entire stadium. For every senior that step foot on the field, their high school football careers were over. And as tough as a season as it had been for both teams, every single one of those seniors left Garry Berry having made memories and learned lessons.
The primary lesson that both sides learned, was the value of finishing the fight no matter how hard it seems.
“That’s just life,” Swanson said. “These guys are my brothers. It’s going to happen for the rest of your life. Football is not just a game. It shows you a sneak peek of what life is. Every up and every down. Whoever I’m with, I’m going to be all in with them on everything.”