Broden Cox’s final pose deep in right-center field was with both hands and feet aloft, laying on his back facing up into the late-afternoon overcast sky and the ball secured in his glove.

If there’s a play in baseball that can rival the thrill of a game-winning home run, it’s a diving catch to close a game.

Third-seeded Falcon had both Friday. In the state tournament.

Talan Chubb pulled a tiebreaking home run over the left field fence at UCCS in the bottom of the sixth, then Cox sealed the 2-1 victory over No. 7 Holy Family with the diving play in the gap. The spectacular finish capped a 2-0 day for the Falcons – who earlier beat Canon City 7-4 – and placed them in Saturday’s 4A semifinal against No. 5 Pueblo County at 2:30 p.m. at Air Force.

“I always dream about it,” Cox said of the idea of making a diving play to win a game. “What if that happens to me? Today it happened. I’m super stoked.”

Leading by one with two outs in the seventh and the bases empty, Cox nearly changed his angle to play it conservatively off the bound and hold Holy Family’s Keenan Hughes to a double or even a long single. Had Cox failed to catch it with his diving effort, Hughes likely would have reached third. Had the ball squirted away, Hughes might have circled the bases.

“It kept hanging up in the air, so I was like, ‘I can go get this,’” Cox said.

This came just a few minutes after Chubb put Falcon (21-4) in the lead with a home run he celebrated by leaping into his teammates after tossing his helmet into the air on the way back to the dugout.

“It felt amazing coming off the bat,” said Chubb, whom his coach calls perhaps the smallest cleanup hitter in Colorado.

The big moments were set up by a number of smaller ones.

Canon City strung together five consecutive hits in the top of the first in the first game, building a 4-0 lead. A two-run double from Rocco Montoya capped the rally.

Falcon was unfazed.

The first four Falcons batters singled and scored, immediately tying the score.

“They are straight-up resilient,” Falcon coach Brandon Stegman said. “They are resilient kids. We practice tough, so we play tough.”

For the final 13 innings of the day, the Falcons pitchers and defense allowed just one run.

That was aided by plays like Brayden Millikan – who also homered against Canon City – skying into the air to snag a line drive at first base.

Millikan then pitched the second game, where he helped himself out of a two-on, one-out jam by starting a 1-6-3 double play – though Chubb’s handling of the off-line initial feed from pitcher to shortstop was critical in the execution.

Kasen Patton, who pitched the first game and held Canon City in check after that first-inning barrage, made multiple scoops at first base that resulted in outs on bang-bang plays.

“What we have done well this year is we have figured out our roles,” Stegman said.

The Falcons’ first run against Holy Family came when No. 9 hitter Tyler Reichers put down a quality sacrifice bunt that forced a rushed play and resulted in the pitcher throwing up the right-field line. Garrett Kyle advanced from first to third on the play and then scored on a sacrifice fly from Aaron Jaquez.

Jaquez himself had scored from second on a deep sacrifice fly from Millikan.

Falcon came up with the spectacular, and the routine, and frequently blended the two.

“It was very big continuing to make plays,” Chubb said, “especially at this level.”