2A Football: Early air assault powers No. 7 Basalt over No. 10 Woodland Park

BASALT – Knowing that Woodland Park was putting together a game plan to slow down powerful running back Cooper Crawford, the Basalt Longhorns decided to just change their approach.

They let Kade Schneider take to the air early. It might seem like a gamble, but only if the team was unsure of his ability. They had no reason to be unsure as Schneider seized the moment, connecting with Dylan Madden for a 50-yard passing touchdown in the first quarter.

That set the tone as the No. 7 Longhorns got a 45-24 win over No. 10 Woodland Park in the first round of the Class 2A state football tournament.

“We know Kade is a great talent and we know we have great receivers,” coach Carl Frerichs said. “We knew they were probably going to load the box. What’s great about my two coaches who run the offense is they take what the defense gives you and that’s what we did. That put them on their heels early in the game because they loaded the box.”

Schneider threw for 290 yards in the win. Through the entire regular season, he had thrown for over 100 yards in a game just twice. In the second quarter he found Luke Rapaport for a 15-yard touchdown pass. That was one of just four plays the Longhorns (10-0 overall) had in the entire second quarter. Three of those plays came on first down and one of them was that touchdown pass.

The offense was grooving early.

“We knew they were game planning for Cooper Crawford,” Schneider said. “So we went to the air and it worked so we kept it going.”

Offensively, the Panthers (6-4) were able to keep pace through the first half. Bryce Broeker found a wide open Griffin King for the Panthers first score of the game in the first quarter and then big running back Aiden Hernandez scored from 14 yards out in the second.

The turning point of the game came on a goal line stand at the end of the second quarter where the Longhorns kept Broeker out of the end zone to keep it a 24-14 game. The Panthers got the ball to start the second half so a touchdown there could have been disastrous. Instead, Broeker went for a deep ball on the second play of the second half and it was picked off by Rapaport.

Then it was time for Crawford to get his production on the ground. He scored two rushing touchdowns in the second half and ended the day with 127 total yards on the ground. Not bad considering it was the secondary part of the offensive game plan.

“We were a little underestimated out there,” Crawford said.

And that’s the feeling the entire team went into the game with. After putting together an undefeated regular season, the Longhorns were given the No. 7 seed in the playoffs. Considering two teams in their league made the postseason and one of them – Rifle – came away with a 14-7 win over No. 3 Florence, even Rodney Dangerfield would be irritated with the lack of respect for the squads on the Western Slope.

“I think us Western Slope teams are due a little more respect,” Crawford said.

The Longhorns will have a chance to earn that respect as they head east next week to take on No. 2 Eaton.