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Olathe halts Basalt’s win streak

Jon Maletz
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado
Jim Ryan/Special to The Aspen TimesBasalt's Sam Morrison attempts to tackle Olathe's Kyle Piatt during Friday's game at Basalt High School.
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BASALT – Basalt head football coach Carl Frerichs knew Olathe’s head-scratching 34-6 loss to Rifle last week was an anomaly. He knew his Longhorns would be in for a tough battle at home.

He was right. The Pirates, who were ranked as high as seventh in The Denver Post’s 2A poll before dropping their last two games, scored touchdowns on their first two possessions Friday and capitalized on a host of Basalt miscues to pull out a 28-7 win.

“[Last week’s result] was totally a misconception. … They’re a tough team and beat us fair and square,” said Frerichs, whose squad had won its previous two games. “I feel like we’re much better than we played. They get all the credit … but we had opportunities to compete.”



One of those chances came in the latter stages of the opening half, when a Basalt drive deep in Olathe’s red zone stalled because of a costly false start.

Had they scored, the Longhorns would’ve trailed 14-7 at halftime.




“When it was 14-0, really at that time I feel like it’s anyone’s game,” Frerichs said.

Basalt opened the third quarter on offense, but went three plays and out. The Pirates made the home team pay, marching right down the field on the ensuing possession to stretch the lead to 21-0.

Later in the third quarter, in an attempt to inject some life into his offense, Frerichs called a halfback pass with his team at their own 30-yard line; Zach Mobilian was drilled by a defender, the ball was knocked loose and a Pirates defender scooped it up and returned it inside the Longhorns’ 10.

Olathe, which fumbled the ball eight times in last week’s loss – including four times inside its own 30 – added a fourth touchdown soon after to all but seal the win.

“We took a risky chance to try and get some momentum,” Frerichs said. “It wasn’t like in years past when we didn’t move the ball against them. We had way over 200 yards of total offense. … We just didn’t complete drives.”

Mobilian scored Basalt’s lone touchdown on a 3-yard run in the final quarter.

“I know they’re tough, but we could’ve competed better and played better,” Frerichs said. “We feel like we can play with anyone in the league.”

The Longhorns will square off with downvalley rival Roaring Fork at 7 p.m. Friday in Carbondale. The Rams dropped to 1-3 after a 45-19 loss to Coal Ridge in other action Friday.

jmaletz@aspentimes.com