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Aspen football’s turnaround season continues with comeback win over Pagosa Springs

Skiers head to Coal Ridge on Thursday before hosting Basalt in finale

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Austin Colbert
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Aspen High School football receiver Malcolm Berg, center left wearing No. 7, makes a contested catch against Pagosa Springs on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Aspen.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

That slow 1-2 start to the season? Yeah, go ahead and forget about it.

In fact, Aspen High School football coach Bryce Sandoval said to go ahead and forget about the past few years as a whole following the team’s fourth straight win on Friday night over visiting Pagosa Springs.

The corner has been turned.

“That corner came around in like June. I had 30-plus guys here all summer long, putting in the work, putting in the hours, getting better,” he said. “We went to summer camp in Gunnison and all that is finally paying off. That’s the thing with hard work, it pays off and no one tells you when. These boys have been at it since I got here Day 1.”

Friday’s 29-28 homecoming victory over the Pirates (now 3-4, 2-2 WSL) is undoubtedly the biggest win of Sandoval’s young coaching career. The Skiers finished a dismal 2-6 last season, which was Sandoval’s first at AHS after a decade as an assistant at both Bayfield and Durango high schools.


But the 2026 team is showing it’s a much different adversary. Against Pagosa Springs, the Skiers trailed 14-0 early in the first quarter, only to rally and take a 16-14 lead early in the second quarter.

Then, after falling behind 28-16 at halftime, Aspen simply rallied again, outscoring the Pirates 13-0 in the second half — all the points coming in the third quarter — with a standout defensive performance helping secure the critical win.

“This team, we are hard to kill,” Sandoval said. “We are not giving up no more. They may say whatever they want about the past, but guess what, it’s in the past. The scoreboard is dark. This team right here, hard to kill.”

Aspen High School football head coach Bryce Sandoval, center, talks to the players after beating Pagosa Springs on Friday in Aspen.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Aspen’s Tenn Wesner, left, looks for space to run against Pagosa Springs on Friday.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

Aspen opened its season with a 25-13 loss at North Fork — a team currently 6-0 and ranked No. 1 in Class 1A in CHSAA’s rankings — before a 23-8 home win over 3A Summit (currently 3-4). Game 3 was a 42-0 home loss to Delta, a team now 8-0 and sitting at No. 3 in 2A.

While each game since has been a roller coaster, the end results were the same. The Skiers have racked up narrow wins at Gunnison (21-20), over Wyoming’s Lyman (27-24), at Montezuma-Cortez (16-6) and then Friday over Pagosa Springs. Aspen is now 5-2 overall and 3-1 in Western Slope League play, which is second behind only Delta.

Most importantly, AHS was No. 11 as of Sunday among 2A schools in CHSAA’s rankings, putting them in a strong position to make the postseason. That said, Aspen will have to navigate two more regular-season games before any playoff dreams are realized. AHS hasn’t had a postseason game since the 2020-21 pandemic season.

Pagosa Springs’ Hudson Mazur, wearing No. 0, is tackled by a couple of Aspen defenders.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Aspen’s Tenn Wesner, left, gets ahold of Pagosa Springs runner Alex Pacheco.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

“It feels good, but it’s all on the kids,” Sandoval said. “They put in the work, they put in the hours, they do the film study, they bought into the culture. It’s all on them and I’m proud of them. I’m really proud of them.”

The game against Pagosa was likely the final for Aspen under the “Friday night lights” as the Skiers will next play at Coal Ridge (3-4, 2-2) this Thursday. Kickoff is 7 p.m. in New Castle. The regular-season finale is scheduled for Oct. 24 — a Saturday — against rival Basalt on the AHS turf. That game will also kick off at 7 p.m.

The Longhorns (4-3, 2-2 WSL) are coming off a competitive 27-19 loss to Delta on Thursday. Ranked No. 15 in 2A as of Sunday, BHS heads to Montezuma-Cortez (2-5, 1-3) this Friday before heading to Aspen the following weekend. Among Basalt’s three defeats was a 21-16 loss at Pagosa Springs on Sept. 26.

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Reach Austin at acolbert@aspentimes.com

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