Mountain Vista senior Adam Holton made his debut as a running back on Oct. 16 in a game against Highlands Ranch at Shea Stadium and his performance deserves an encore.
Holton is a wide receiver/linebacker who was moved to running back by head coach Garrett Looney in a new two-back rotation for the Golden Eagles.
He broke loose on an 80-yard touchdown run with 7:31 left to play in the fourth quarter and his TD gallop broke a tie and gave Vista a 28-21 victory in the Douglas County league game.
“I just saw a hole, took off in it, saw open grass and turned the speed on,” explained Holton. “Our wide receivers got some good blocks. It felt really good. That was my first game playing running back. I liked it a lot. I want to be back there soon.”
But Holton still had work to do after his game-winning touchdown to help Vista even its season record at 1-1.
Highlands Ranch drove to the Vista 16-yard line but a fourth and four pass went off the fingers of a receiver and Vista gained possession with 4:24 left in the contest.
Holton carried the ball on six of Vista’s next nine plays and three times picked up first downs as the Golden Eagles ran out the clock.
“We knew we couldn’t give them the ball back,” said Holton. “They had three timeouts left and we had to eat them up and just get yards. We knew we had to get the three first downs and we’d win.”
Holton also caught a 23-yard TD pass from quarterback Dane Dougherty who threw two scoring passes to Nick Stone in the close game that was tied on three different occasions.
“I told these guys that that was the type of game we found a way to lose last year,’ said Looney. “I like the growth of our program to find a way to win a game like that. It’s always nice to beat the team down the street. It’s a good rivalry. Highlands Ranch is a good football team. They are well-coached, big, physical, and we did a great job of sticking with it and found a way to win.”
Unofficially, Holton finished with 171 yards on 18 carries.
Highlands Ranch quarterback Kyle Lindbloom threw touchdown passes to Jade Arroyo and Josh Lindahl and Jarrell Trahan ran for the Falcons’ first score of the game.
“They had a couple big runs and we got inside the 20-yard line three times and didn’t score so that didn’t help,” said new Highlands Ranch coach Tyson Lunquist, whose team is now 1-1 for the season. “We’ve got to get better. We’ve got work to do.”