COLORADO SPRINGS — Basalt High School coach Carl Frerichs preached all season the importance of winning the turnover battle — especially during playoff football.
Saturday, a turnover proved to be the spark the No. 9-seeded Longhorns needed for the eventual game-winning touchdown in a 13-7 win over No. 8 The Classical Academy to punch their ticket to the second round of the Class 2A playoffs.
Basalt will face No. 1 Rifle in the quarterfinals next week. The Longhorns faced Rifle just two weeks ago in a 21-9 2A Western Slope loss.
TCA forced Basalt to punt early in the second quarter, but on the first play from scrimmage Titan quarterback Sam Guilez fumbled on the handoff, recovered by the Longhorns on the Titan 23. Basalt moved the chains once before junior quarterback Matty Gillis sent a touchdown pass to senior Jackson Rappaport.
Aided by two TCA 15-yard penalties, Gillis led the Longhorns’ first charge down the field ending with a 10-yard pass to Rappaport.
The Titans responded with a first-drive touchdown of their own thanks to a two-yard rush by sophomore Cade Palmer. But it proved to be the last time TCA would find the end zone the rest of the way.
“Even from the first quarter they had us on our heels and their offense was working really well. But my kids buckled down and stayed on their feet, and once we settled in our kids were flying around and playing like we are used to,” Frerichs said.
TCA ‘tightened their chinstraps’ during the break and emerged from the locker room ready to move the ball, but unfortunately for the Titans, they could not move the ball into the end zone.
TCA did, however, stop Rappaport’s production, which frustrated the 6-foot-3 receiver.
“They were triple covering me in the second half and they did a great job covering me, I don’t think I got the ball at all in the second half,” Rappaport said.
But without another score in the second half, Rappaport’s damage was already done.
“I was a little bit late on the defensive plan to take care of (Rappaport) to wait until the second half, so that probably cost us the game,” said TCA coach Justin Rich.
TCA was stopped deep in Basalt’s zone twice in the second half, including a drive turned over on downs on the Longhorn 5-yard line.
Looking at 4th and less-than-one, TCA tried to replicate the play that had previously found success on Palmer’s short touchdown run, but the Longhorns were ready and closed the gap shy of the first down.
Penalties also hurt the Titans, especially in the second half as two 10-yard penalties halted momentum on an important drive with less than five minutes left to play.
The Longhorns played two top-5 teams in the final three weeks of the regular season, facing No. 1 Rifle and No. 4 Delta in back-to-back weeks. And despite finishing 3-2 in league play, Frerichs said his team is battle tested and confident thanks to their tough league schedule.
“These tough games only gets you better,” Frerichs said. “We tell the kids all the time that conference championships are a t-shirt. Really all we care about is getting into the tournament and from there we can show who we really are.”