YOUR AD HERE »

Basalt football beats Roaring Fork to claim outright league title

Basalt junior Luis Arce gets his hands on the Roaring Fork quarterback for a tackle on Friday in Carbondale. The Longhorns won, 46-22, to win their first league title since 1984.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times |

The Basalt High School football team wanted to leave no doubt, and it accomplished that Friday with a 46-22 win over Roaring Fork in Carbondale.

The victory in the season finale gives the Longhorns the outright title in the Class 2A Western Slope League. It’s their first league title since 1984.

“Their hard work is paying off,” Basalt coach Carl Frerichs said. “I can’t be prouder of these boys. I can’t be prouder of the coaching staff. These kids have really been working hard for this.”



Basalt finishes the season 7-2 overall and a perfect 5-0 in WSL play. Assuming its top-16 RPI ranking will hold through the weekend, Basalt should be in position to host a playoff game next week.

Roaring Fork, which still had an outside shot at sharing a league title entering Friday’s contest, came out strong and battled with the Longhorns for a short time.




The teams played through a scoreless first quarter before Basalt finally got a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs — one each from Alex Alberto and Colin Hipona — to lead 14-0 at halftime.

“In the first half, I think we just had a couple things that killed ourselves,” Frerichs said. “In the second half we capitalized on those and really, they couldn’t stop our offense.”

The third quarter turned wild, with quarterback Miles Levy finding Hipona on a 22-yard scoring play to open the half. Roaring Fork responded with a 67-yard touchdown bomb to make it 21-8, but the Longhorns quickly turned around, with Alberto’s second touchdown run making it 28-8.

Another long touchdown by the Rams cut it to 28-14, but two scores later and Basalt led 40-14 heading to the final quarter.

“The offensive line really played well,” Frerichs said. “Alex Alberto had a huge second half running the ball.”

The playoff brackets are expected to be announced no later than Monday.

acolbert@aspentimes.com

Sports


See more