{"id":2451366,"date":"2019-11-20T22:48:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-21T05:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/another-familiar-foe-heads-to-basalt-in-state-semifinal-matchup\/"},"modified":"2019-11-20T22:48:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T05:48:00","slug":"another-familiar-foe-heads-to-basalt-in-state-semifinal-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/another-familiar-foe-heads-to-basalt-in-state-semifinal-matchup\/","title":{"rendered":"Another familiar foe heads to Basalt in state semifinal matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Basalt High School quarterback Matty Gillis looks to evade a Rifle defender on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019, on the BHS field. The Longhorns won the Class 2A state quarterfinal game in double overtime, 21-14. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong>
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A week later and the storyline hasn\u2019t changed much. The Basalt High School football team is again set to square off in a home playoff game against an all too familiar league foe with program history at stake.<\/p>\n

At 1 p.m. Saturday, No. 9 seed Basalt (9-2) will host No. 4 Delta (10-1) in the Class 2A state semifinals. The winner will move on to play either No. 2 Sterling (10-1) or No. 3 Resurrection Christian (10-1) for the state championship on Nov. 30 in Pueblo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids\u2019 dedication and the kids\u2019 want is what\u2019s so special right now,\u201d BHS coach Carl Frerichs said. \u201cOne of the things that is such an advantage for us is playing at home. I also think it\u2019s such an exciting time for our kids. Our kids have been showing up for practice, working hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the first 2A semifinal appearance in Basalt\u2019s history. According to ColoradoPreps.com, the Longhorns have five playoff wins ever, with four of them coming over the past three seasons, and two in the past two weeks. The only other win came in 1979 when Basalt was in Class 1A; BHS lost in the semifinals that season to eventual champion Limon.<\/p>\n

Delta\u2019s playoff history is a little more robust, having made the semifinals three times since 2013, two of which came in 3A. However, the Panthers lost all three of those games. Their only championship game appearances came in 1960 and 1961, where they won the first and lost the second.<\/p>\n

Not only will Basalt have to overcome a lot of history to win Saturday, it will have to overcome one of its worst games in recent years. The Longhorns played at Delta on Oct. 18 in a 2A Western Slope League contest, losing 35-6 in a game that saw BHS fall behind 14-0 barely a minute into the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the only game this year I just feel like we didn\u2019t coach very well and we didn\u2019t feel like the kids played very well. It was definitely a frustrating night,\u201d Frerichs recalled. \u201cIt was really the only game this year where defensively we didn\u2019t play very good assignment football. And I don\u2019t think the game plan was very good. It was honestly a 50-50 thing with the kids \u2014 I don\u2019t think I lined them up in the positions they should have been in.\u201d<\/p>\n

What should encourage the Longhorns is how they played against the Panthers the two seasons prior. BHS won 13-0 in 2018, Delta\u2019s first season as part of the current 2A WSL, and Basalt won 35-7 in 2017 when Delta was still in the 2A Intermountain League. The Panthers were in Class 3A as recently as 2015, a season in which they went 12-2 overall and lost in the state semifinals.<\/p>\n

When Basalt hosted No. 1 Rifle last weekend in the quarterfinals \u2014 a stunning 21-14 double overtime win for the Longhorns \u2014 it was a similar situation of two teams playing that knew each other maybe too well. Delta\u2019s only loss this season happened to come Oct. 11 to Rifle, 47-29. The Bears had been unbeaten until Basalt ended their season in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both have a pretty good idea of what we like to do, which can be a plus, but it can also be a negative,\u201d Frerichs said of seeing Delta again. \u201cWe definitely made some tweaks, but we also don\u2019t want to over coach. The biggest thing is we want to put our kids in the best position possible to be ready to go, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve been trying to work on all week.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

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

Basalt High School quarterback Matty Gillis looks to evade a Rifle defender on Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019, on the BHS field. The Longhorns won the Class 2A state quarterfinal game in double overtime, 21-14. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times)Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times A week later and the storyline hasn\u2019t changed much. The Basalt High […]<\/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-2451366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 05:24:54","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\/2451366","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=2451366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}