LONGMONT — Throughout its first few games of the season, Mead football was the giant in Class 3A that nobody could seem to take down. Holy Family’s Kaden Hopkin was the asteroid the Mavericks didn’t see coming.

The last three minutes of Friday’s game had the Mavericks — who were ranked No. 2 in the Colorado Preps media poll — crashing back to Earth in their 27-21 loss to the seventh-ranked Tigers.

They led 21-14 up to that point.

The Tigers stared down a third and 15 — and their second consecutive loss along with it — when their sophomore quarterback threw up a prayer to Roman Ochs with the clock ticking ever closer to zero. Ochs answered it by taking it 78 yards into the end zone.

Then they failed on the 2-point conversion. That was with two minutes, 42 seconds remaining. Their defens

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