FORT COLLINS >> In the immediate aftermath of Broomfield’s sixth state football championship in program history and second in three years, head coach Robert O’Brien teared up talking about his senior quarterback.

Just two years earlier, Darien Jackson could only dream of touching the field for meaningful snaps.

“Two years ago, Darien was fourth string,” O’Brien said.

“We talked about it yesterday at practice. Nothing was given to that kid. Nothing was given to him. Everybody counted him out. He earned every single thing that he’s gotten. He earned the starting quarterback job. He earned the opportunities. He’s earned the reps. I’m so proud of him.”

By the end of the No. 5 Eagles’ 35-28 comeback thriller over No. 2 Montrose at Canvas Stadium on Saturday, he was the named the game’s most outstanding player.

The 181 yards he put in the air and the three touchdowns he scored — two passing and one rushing — more than confirmed why he deserved it.

He finished his one shining season at the top of the ticket with 1,829 passing yards in 13 of the 14 games the Eagles played (per MaxPreps). They defeated every 4A opponent they faced, with their only blemish in a 13-1 season coming against 5A rival Erie.

“Ever since the summer, I’ve been working with my QB coach and, you know, it’s just the work I put in the offseason,” Jackson said. “We have offseason lifting for like three months before the game, and, man, it’s just all the work that people don’t see that really shows up.”

He put on 30 pounds of muscle over the past year and almost didn’t stick around to realize the dream he completed on Saturday night.

“I’m not going to lie, I was thinking about transferring at some point,” he said. “I was just like, I’ve got to stick it out. It’s a one-on-one competition (with last year’s quarterback CT Worley), and, I mean, I couldn’t be more proud of where I’ve come, where coaches put me. It’s emotional.”

Emotion was the last thing driving Jackson against the Red Hawks, who dominated nearly every facet of the game in the first half. He was an assassin at the times when the Eagles needed him most.

Montrose sliced through Broomfield’s defense throughout the first 24 minutes, scoring every time it possessed the ball. Jackson added his first reprieve in the opening seconds of the second quarter with a 16-yard toss to Elliot Less, then cut the Red Hawks’ 28-7 lead down to a more manageable 28-14 in the final three seconds of the first half.

His zeroed in on a perfect missile to Mikhail Benner, who scored with the tip of his toes before being pushed out of bounds next to the pylon.

Jackson was the beating heart of that 81-yard, 37-second drive to get Benner there.

He finished his high school campaign on the highest note possible. Now, Jackson will prepare for his next chapter at Concordia College in Minnesota.

“With the transfer portal nowadays, it’s kind of like I want to go somewhere and start, because there’s no real true freshman starters anymore,” he explained. “I was like, let’s go find a school that I really, really love, find coaches that I really, really love, and find a place that I can start at. I think that this win will help me do that.”