{"id":2451190,"date":"2019-11-15T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-16T05:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/after-losing-late-to-rifle-the-first-time-basalt-hopes-to-learn-from-mistakes\/"},"modified":"2019-11-15T22:32:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-16T05:32:00","slug":"after-losing-late-to-rifle-the-first-time-basalt-hopes-to-learn-from-mistakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/after-losing-late-to-rifle-the-first-time-basalt-hopes-to-learn-from-mistakes\/","title":{"rendered":"After losing late to Rifle the first time, Basalt hopes to learn from mistakes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Basalt High School football’s Cole Dombrowski carries the ball as BHS hosts Rifle on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, in Basalt. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

From players to coaches, members of the Basalt High School football team have repeatedly said they believe they should have beaten Rifle last month. The teams played in an Oct. 25 regular-season game, Rifle escaping with a 21-9 win after trailing early in the fourth quarter on the BHS field.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are kind of glad to have a chance for redemption because I felt like we should have won the game. Hopefully this time it will be a different turnout,\u201d BHS junior receiver Rulbe Alvarado said. \u201cWe just got a little lost. I don\u2019t know if we got confident. I don\u2019t know, but hopefully it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teams are set for a rematch on Saturday, and this time there is a lot more on the line. No. 9 seed Basalt (8-2) will host No. 1 Rifle (10-0) in the second round of the Class 2A state playoffs, with the winner advancing to play either No. 4 Delta or No. 5 Faith Christian in the semifinals. Kickoff for all four of Saturday\u2019s 2A quarterfinal games is scheduled for 1 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been telling the kids all week, we feel great athlete to athlete,\u201d BHS coach Carl Frerichs said. \u201cThey are a really well coached team. It\u2019s really fun to see what they do and we got to make sure we got our kids in the best possible situation to combat some of that X\u2019s and O\u2019s stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you talk about football on the Western Slope, not many teams come with the pedigree that Rifle does. They were a longtime power in Class 3A, winning the state championship in 2004 under former coach Darrel Gorham. Damon Wells, the team\u2019s current head coach, was the defensive coordinator that season.<\/p>\n

The Bears moved down to 2A last season. They\u2019ve won the 2A Western Slope League each of the past two seasons, their only league loss coming at home against Aspen in a stunner a year ago. Rifle has beaten Basalt four times in four seasons, going back to non-league wins in 2016 and 2017 when the Bears were still in 3A. Prior to 2016, the teams hadn\u2019t played each other in recent memory.<\/p>\n

So, maybe meeting up in the playoffs is a way to make up for lost time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is an advantage to both teams when you\u2019ve played each other because I think we have a better feel for what they do than most teams. But they probably feel the exact same thing about what we do as well,\u201d Frerichs said. \u201cI do feel we have a pretty good idea of what they want to do. But Damon does such a great job of always being one step ahead of your defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rifle averages 41 points per game, having outscored opponents 410-98 this season. Outside of the 21 points Basalt held them to, the Bears scored at least 31 points in every game, and in that game (a 31-3 win over Eagle Valley) all the points were scored in the first half.<\/p>\n

Hardly an offensive juggernaut, the Basalt defense has certainly carried most of the load this season. Outside of the 35 points allowed to Delta in a game that got away from the Longhorns early, Basalt has been able to hold most opponents at bay, including in last week\u2019s 13-7 first-round playoff win over No. 8 The Classical Academy. That same defense allowed them to hang with Rifle back in October, only a week after that 35-6 loss to Delta.<\/p>\n

Having a chance in Saturday\u2019s playoff game will be about fixing the offensive mistakes from that first matchup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just didn\u2019t capitalize,\u201d BHS senior receiver Jackson Rapaport said. \u201cThey stopped us on the 5-yard-line twice. Props to their defense, but when we are that close, we should be able to score. In this game, we are not going to miss chances like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In that Oct. 25 game in Basalt, the Longhorns came out swinging. Sophomore running back Cole Dombrowski ran in a touchdown on the first drive to give BHS a 6-0 lead after a blocked extra point. The Bears answered right back, a 1-yard sneak by Rifle quarterback Holden Stutsman making it 7-6 in favor of the visitors late in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the defenses manned up, the 7-6 score holding all the way into the fourth quarter. A field goal by Basalt\u2019s Carlos Palomares gave BHS the lead at 9-7 with just inside 12 minutes to play in the game.<\/p>\n

However, Rifle owned Basalt from there, with star tailback Levi Warfel leading the charge that effectively ran out the clock on the home team. Stopping Warfel is the key to stopping the Rifle offense \u2014 the senior rushed 20 times for 172 yards in that game, and has exactly 1,500 yards and 21 touchdowns rushing this season, per MaxPreps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just kind of lost a little bit of our footing in the fourth quarter. I just think if we keep going without slowing down we will take them this time,\u201d Alvarado said. \u201cThey are just very disciplined and they go 100% until the echo of the whistle, which is a huge part of their program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a lethargic finish on Oct. 25, Basalt felt it proved to everyone it could hang with Rifle. Saturday\u2019s playoff rematch will be about trying to finish what it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense stepped up huge,\u201d Rapaport said of the first game. \u201cI really just think whoever comes out and wants it more is going to take this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Basalt High School football’s Cole Dombrowski carries the ball as BHS hosts Rifle on Friday, Oct. 25, 2019, in Basalt. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times From players to coaches, members of the Basalt High School football team have repeatedly said they believe they should have beaten Rifle last month. The teams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 06:12:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451190\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}