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The Basalt High School football team handled Olathe in its season opener on Friday night, winning 29-7 on the Pirates’ field.
The Longhorns led 13-0 at halftime and didn’t allow a point until the final minutes to beat Class 1A Olathe in the opener for the second straight season. BHS also beat Olathe 28-0 in the first game last fall, that game being played in Basalt.
“Offensively we really moved the ball well,” BHS coach Carl Frerichs said. “We just got to work on penalties and finishing drives. I felt like the offensive line did a nice job and the running backs ran hard.”
Basalt fumbled the ball over to Olathe on its first possession Friday, but got the offense going after that. Sophomore fullback Gavin Webb scored from 5 yards out on the second possession to make it 7-0, a score that held into the second quarter. Sophomore running back Cole Dombrowski had a 79-yard touchdown run negated by a penalty late in the first quarter.
Early in the second quarter, Webb scored again from a yard out, a touchdown set up by a 40-yard pass and catch down to the 1-yard line.
Junior quarterback Matty Gillis, making his starting debut at the position for the Longhorns, found senior receiver Jackson Rapaport for a 25-yard score midway through the third quarter. A successful 2-point conversion made it 21-0.
Basalt’s lead became 23-0 after a safety midway through the fourth quarter, and it was 29-0 after Gillis found Rapaport for a second time, this one coming from 6 yards out with 2:42 to play.
“A lot of penalties to clean up, but defense I felt played really, really well,” Frerichs said. “Those are all things we can clean up.”
Olathe’s only points came on a roughly 50-yard touchdown pass and catch with less than two minutes to play.
The loss dropped Olathe to 0-2 after it fell 35-14 at Coal Ridge, one of Basalt’s Class 2A Western Slope League foes, last week.
Basalt (1-0) will host Class 3A Battle Mountain on Saturday, Sept. 14, in its home opener. BHS beat Battle Mountain a year ago in Edwards, winning 47-6.
The Aspen High School football team’s season opener will be noon Saturday, Sept. 7, on the AHS turf against Bayfield (0-1). The Wolverines are the 2017 state champions and were the No. 1 seed in the 2A playoffs a year ago.
AHS took Bayfield to the wire last year, losing 20-8 on the road. The Wolverines lost their season opener this year to San Juan (Utah), 42-13.
Other scores of note this week include Meeker beating Coal Ridge, 40-8; Holy family beating Glenwood Springs, 29-0; and Delta beating Thornton, 42-0.