A full moon and full stands served as Friday night’s backdrop in Basalt for the regular season finale against Roaring Fork Valley high school football rivals Aspen and Basalt.
While Aspen looked promising at times throughout, ultimately the game would end in the Longhorns favor, 62-20. BHS junior William Daniel did a lot of the damage, rushing for 240 yards on only 16 carries with five touchdowns.
In addition to Friday’s game being the regular-season finale, it was also senior night, as well as a game played in remembrance of Carson Clettenberg, who died in August 2022, just before his senior season at AHS.
Friday’s game also marked the 100th victory for Basalt head coach Carl Frerichs, who humbly acknowledged the honor by saying it just means he’s been “doing this for a long time.”
“My entire coaching staff has been with me pretty much the entire time — we’ve all had a great time together,” Frerichs said. “We have amazing families and amazing kids in Basalt and I couldn’t be happier with where I’m at. This is a big win for us. The kids were a little down after we had those two losses in a row, but we knew we were a damn good football team. 7-2 getting into the playoffs, we’re exactly where we want to be. We’re in the dance and that’s all that matters.”
While the Longhorns won’t know the team’s official standing in the playoffs until Sunday, Frerichs said he’s fairly confident they can look forward to a home game next weekend. The Longhorns finished the regular season 7-2 overall and 3-2 in league.
While it was a night to celebrate in Basalt, it was a bittersweet ending for the Skiers, who finished their season 3-6 overall and 2-3 in the league.
Aspen coach Eric McCready said the team gave up a lot early, which ultimately put them in a tough position to come back from once team efforts improved by the end of the second quarter.
“I felt like we had a really good game plan and we were just a step behind Basalt the whole game,” McCready said. “They just came out a little bit faster, came a little bit tougher. We say it all the time, it’s attitude and effort, and we didn’t start the game with it but we started fighting in the middle but by then that’s just a deep hole.”
It was the 10th straight win for Basalt over Aspen.
