Football: ‘Selfless’ Mead shines through despite 3A finals loss

FORT COLLINS — Mead linebacker Josh Gonsalves said he felt his hamstring “snap” in the third quarter of the Class 3A title game Saturday morning.

He stayed in for a few plays as the Mavericks continued to battle back from a two-score halftime deficit at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins. Then, in what he considered a much tougher decision, he took himself out.

“I was playing too slow,” the junior said, now draped over a pair of crutches following Mead’s 16-14 finals loss to Thompson Valley. “So, I needed to do what’s best for the team.”

Team-first. It’s a sentiment Mead coach Jason Klatt has long preached to his program, which returned to the title game for the second time in four seasons. And it’s one the Mavericks leaned on into high school football’s final day, where they had the ball in the final minute, with a chance to win, before finally bowing out on a fourth-down incompletion.

When asked about Gonsalves’ attempt to stay in and play on a bum leg, Klatt beamed. Quick to tell you how unsurprised he was about it, he explained how it drips from the same stuff that has turned Gonsalves’ slender, 5-foot-9 frame into a defensive sledgehammer for the Mavericks.

But, what about a player removing himself from a title game? For the betterment of his team? “That is the 2024 Mead Mavericks,” Klatt said.

The Mavericks’ selfless approach started with their defense. And to little surprise, 3A’s 2024 football swan song started and ended with the defense, too.

The Eagles and Mavericks were among the stingiest units in the state, allowing six and 10 points per game apiece. And it wasn’t long before they became the headliners in Fort Collins.

Mead’s defense allowed a touchdown and field goal on Thompson Valley’s first two possessions, then pitched a shutout over the last three quarters. The Eagles’ only other score was off a pick-six in the second quarter.

Down 9-0, the Mavericks forced two turnovers before the half — Charles Baker picked off Finley Lucas and Spencer Muncy recovered a fumble — and the latter turned into points.

Then late in the fourth, after QB Christian Hiner got Mead within two — 16-14 — Baker gave the offense one last chance to pull ahead after he toe-grabbed the sideline for his second interception of the day and third of the season.

It wasn’t to be. But the Mavs left the field with their heads high.

“It’s not 1-on-1, it’s 11-on-11 or 11-on-1,” Baker said of Mead’s approach. “It’s all of us versus one guy you got. Or all 11 of us against your 11. We play as a team. There’s no special player here.”

Just a special team in 2024.