The CU football team celebrating their win on September 19th with the fans and Chip at the Rocky Mountain Showdown. (Elizabeth Rodriguez/CU Independent)
Junior kicker Diego Gonzalez was given a second shot to win the Rocky Mountain Showdown, and he made sure it went through the uprights. His teammates swarmed him after the 32-yard field goal ended a thrilling rivalry game with the University of Colorado coming out on top, 27-24, over Colorado State.
“It’s amazing, it’s my first game winner,” Gonzalez said. “I’m really happy the coaches trusted me a second time and gave me that opportunity.”
With two seconds left in the fourth quarter and with the score tied at 24-24, Gonzalez’s kick fell short of the uprights, sending the game to overtime.
The Buffs didn’t let the miss affect the game. Instead, they rallied around Gonzalez.
“They were like ‘don’t worry about it, you’ll get a second chance, you’ll put it through’,” Gonzalez said.
Colorado won the coin toss and elected to play defense first. On the first overtime possession Colorado State faced a third down and four from the seven-yard line. The Rams completed a pass but the Buffs’ defense stuffed the play for a loss of three yards, forcing a field goal attempt.
Safety Tedric Thompson got a hand on the attempted kick and the ball fell to the ground – no good. The crowd erupted and thoughts immediately went to the left leg of Gonzalez. A Christian Powell run for a first down brought the Buffs closer. Junior quarterback Sefo Liufau took the snap and centered the football to set up the attempt.
Colorado came out flat from the start, allowing a 51-yard Colorado State return from Deionte Gaines on the first kickoff of the game.
“From an offensive perspective I think we sputtered from the beginning,” Liufau said.
The Rams offense came out hot and jumped out to a 14-0 lead behind quarterback Nick Stevens’ 68 yards on 7-8 passing and one touchdown.
Gonzalez stopped the shutout with a career long 52-yard field goal. The game began to turn around when the Colorado defense stepped up. After stopping CSU on fourth and one on the CU 24, the Buffs began to regain some momentum.
In an extremely quick turnaround, a CSU 52-yard field goal was no good, leading to a Liufau 65-yard touchdown pass to Shay Fields on the next play. Two plays later senior defensive back Ken Crawley picked off Stevens’ pass and just like that, Colorado had the ball down just 14-10.
“We kept trusting each other and we ended up pulling it out and getting something going,” Liufau said.
Colorado had plenty of missed opportunities in the first half including a big touchdown pass called back because of a hands to the face call on offensive tackle Stephane Nembot, a dropped pass by Fields on a trick play that had wide receiver Nelson Spruce throwing a pass on a reverse and a blocked field goal just before halftime.
The Buffs didn’t let these missed opportunities get them down, and kept the momentum in the second half. Liufau hit Devon Ross on a 24-yard touchdown pass on the first drive of the second half.
The defense then had another big stand with CSU knocking on the door inside the ten-yard line to hold the Rams to a field goal, tying the game at 17 with 6:54 to go in the third quarter.
The teams went into the fourth still knotted at 17. The deadlock was broken with a birthday present. You read that right.
Happy 20th birthday, Kenneth Olugbode. The junior inside linebacker found himself in the right place at the right time after a tipped pass by Rick Gamboa. Olugbode intercepted the ball and took it 60 yards for a touchdown, giving Colorado a 24-17 lead with 8:50 left in the 4th quarter.
“It’s an amazing birthday present,” Olugbode said.
The Rams quickly struck back with a one yard touchdown run from Jasen Oden. After exchanging punts, Colorado got the ball with 1:09 left in the game. Liufau completed a pass to the 30 yard line on fourth and one with nine seconds left. Gonzalez stepped up and missed the kick.
The momentum was all on the side of green and gold after Colorado’s Jimmie Gilbert was ejected for targeting Stevens in overtime, giving CSU a first down from the 13. The Buffs held the Rams to a field goal attempt and, well, you know the rest.
“They found an extra energy,” head coach Mike MacIntyre said. “That’s a will to win.”
Colorado improves to 2-1 after the thriller, while Colorado State slips to 1-2 after two straight overtime losses. The Buffs now lead the series of the Rocky Mountain Showdown, now 63-22-2.
“Last year we fought and fought and fought, we couldn’t find a way to win it,” MacIntyre said. “Tonight we found a way to win it.”
The Buffs now turn their attention to next week where they will face Nicholls State (0-2) at home on Saturday, Sept. 26 at 11:30 a.m. (MST).
Contact CU Independent Copy Editor Cannon Casey at cannon.casey@colorado.edu and follow him on Twitter @cannon_casey.
