Walsh sophomore quarterback Hudson Gourley continues to assault the Colorado High School football record books, giving his Eagles’ 6-man football team hope in their bid to reach the playoffs this fall.

After going 1-9 last year, the Eagles are 3-3 entering this week’s game against Granada, which begins a tough stretch of contests to end the team’s regular season slate.

Gourley has put a charge into the offense with his arm, however, and there’s no reason to think that’ll slow down despite the competition. The starting QB last year, Gourley has shown improvement in many areas of his game including completion percentage, yards per completion and touchdown-to-interception ratio. And it all started with the first game of the year.

In a 65-37 win against Primero to open the season, Gourley tied a state record with 10 touchdown passes. It’s a record that has stood since 2016, when Longmont Christian’s Luke Puchino beat Mountain Valley.

Gourley put on yet another aerial masterclass this past week against Wiley. On Friday night, the Eagles got back to .500 with a 81-51 victory, one of the highest-scoring games of the year in the state. This time, Gourley connected with five different receivers for a total of seven TDs. While Gage Caddick caught three of those TDs, senior Samuel Wright logged 147 receiving yards and a score. Gourley threw for 389 yards.

With 27 TDs on the season, Gourley is about halfway to the state record of 57, set last season by Mountain Vista’s Austyn Modrzewski. While the state’s top mark is probably safe, Gourley’s current pace would put him well within reach of a top-10 output by the time the regular season ended.

Of note, in both of the aforementioned games, 13 combined passing touchdowns were scored (Grant Mauch threw for six TDs for Wiley last week). According to CHSAA football records, the 13 combined passing touchdowns in a game ranks third all-time.

While Gourley’s Eagles face Granada this Friday, here are some other games to keep tabs on.

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Class 2A

Eaton at Resurrection Christian, Friday, 7 p.m.

Since losing to open the season, Eaton has reeled off four straight wins including last week’s rivalry tussle with University. The next two weeks for EHS includes the ranked Cougars and league frontrunner Wellington. Jackson Savona is up to 559 yards rushing, while Andrew Loyd is also bullying his way to a 6.7 yards-per-carry average. RCS has shut out each of its past two opponents.

Class 1A

Cedaredge at North Fork, Friday, 7 p.m.

Cedaredge will try and shake off a 22-13 loss to Meeker this week as it travels to face North Fork, which won its opening 1A Western Slope league game 42-6 against Olathe. The Miners’ running back room is deeeeeeep, with four ball carriers having churned out at least 250 yards thus far. Last year’s meeting between these teams was a slugfest, with North Fork winning 14-0.

8-man

Haxtun at Akron, Friday, 7:30 p.m.

We simply cannot ignore a 1-vs-2 matchup, and the Bulldogs and Rams fit the bill as perhaps one of the most intriguing games in all of the state, regardless of classification. It’ll be difficult for both defenses to contain the other team’s respective offense, but the efforts on that side of the ball for both programs has been astounding so far. For Haxtun, Coleman Firme (69 total tackles) and Seth Seger (12 tackles for loss) have led; and for Akron, Mason Porteus (14 TFLs) and freshman Nolan Camacho (13 TFLs) have been flying around like madmen. Haxtun has won every matchup since 2019 (eight meetings).

6-man

Caliche at Flagler, Friday, 7 p.m.

The teams are 8 and 9 seeds in the current CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index, so the winner here will take a pretty big step in securing an early-round home playoff game. Flagler (5-1) has a junior in Keegan Isenbart who is up to 706 yards rushing and 14 TDs, while Cody Homm has hummed right along with 348 yards and seven scores. Caliche will look to get back on track after losing to Prairie last weekend.