Aspen football looks to end long losing streak to Basalt in finale
Teams play at 7 p.m. Friday in Basalt
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
A decade of getting pushed around by its rival has the Aspen High School football team ready for a change on the scoreboard. With a playoff spot possibly on the line, AHS travels to undefeated Basalt on Friday night in the final game of the regular season.
Kickoff is 7 p.m. on the BHS field.
The Longhorns haven’t lost to the Skiers since 2013 — a run of 10 straight wins for Basalt.
Aspen (5-3 overall, 3-1 2A West) needs one more win to match its best season and earn its first winning record since going 6-4 in 2018. Standing in the way is Basalt (8-0, 4-0), a team in the mix to be the top overall seed in the Class 2A playoffs when the brackets are released on Sunday.
“Given that it’s the last chance we got, I know the rest of the seniors, as well as myself, want to go out, get it done, give it our all,” AHS senior lineman Blake Johnson said. “It’s so important to us. We’ve been working for a year now, since offseason, to put ourselves in this position, and the hard work is starting to pay off. It feels good, but we got a lot of work to do still.”
The Longhorns last had an undefeated regular season in 2022, going 9-0 with a 49-14 win at Aspen in the regular-season finale. As the No. 7 seed, BHS beat No. 10 Woodland Park in the first round, 45-24, before a 41-7 loss to No. 2 Eaton in the second round to finish 10-1 overall.
Last fall, Basalt went 7-2 in the regular season and was the No. 8 seed in the playoffs, losing to No. 9 The Classical Academy in the first round, 40-19.
Aspen’s last playoff appearance officially came after the 2020-21 season, played in the spring of 2021 due to the pandemic. AHS lost to TCA in the first round, 57-0.
Throughout Basalt’s 10-year reign over Aspen, the Longhorns have won by less than 21 points only three times, single-digit wins in 2014, ’15, and in ’19, the closest of all the games, a 17-14 BHS win. Since then, Basalt has wins of 51-8, 49-21, 49-14, and 62-20 a season ago.
“Playoffs aside, if we were both 0-9, this game means so much,” Aspen coach Eric McCready said of the rivalry with Basalt. “Playoffs at this point don’t matter. Everything that has been done prior to the game (this) Friday doesn’t matter. (BHS coach Carl Frerichs) knows that, too. It’s going to take our very best.”
As of Thursday, Basalt was ranked No. 3 in the CHSAANow.com seeding index, which determines postseason seeding. The Longhorns should be a postseason lock regardless of the outcome on Friday.
Aspen was ranked No. 20 in the seeding index, meaning AHS needs some help to make the 16-team playoff bracket. A win over Basalt on Friday could push them over that threshold, but it doesn’t guarantee them a playoff spot.
An Aspen win over Basalt and a Delta win over Coal Ridge would create a three-way tie between Aspen, Basalt, and Delta at 3-1 each atop the league standings. BHS will win the 2A West outright with a win over the Skiers.
Roaring Fork (3-5 overall) will host North Fork (5-3) at 7 p.m. Friday in their regular-season finale. The Rams were seeded No. 26 in Class 1A as of Thursday.
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