“The boys got a new lease on life,” new Glenwood head coach Eric Bollock said at halftime. 

So much noise surrounded the Glenwood Springs High School homecoming football game, but the Demons muffled it all and took their homecoming game against Summit 50-33. 

Bollock has only been the head coach of the Demons for three days, but the way they played, it seemed as if he had been in charge for the past four years. Glenwood came out with a fire unbeknownst to the team that got beat by Durango 48-0 just a week ago. 

“Just gotta stay excited about it,” Bollack explained. “I told them we are going to have fun playing the game of football.”

Glenwood clearly got the message. They came out of the gates playing with an intensity rarely seen on Stubler Memorial Field this season. The first play from scrimmage was taken 46 yards nearly to the house, but senior Mason Markovich was taken down just inches from the goal line. Two plays later, Max Bollock, son of the brand new head coach, picked the bad snap off the ground and broke the plane for the game’s first points. The 2-point conversion was successful, and the Demons had an 8-0 lead just 1:04 into the first quarter. 

On the next drive, Markovich broke free for another 40+ yard touchdown run before finishing their third drive with a 15-yard rush for his second touchdown of the first half. Markovich had a choke-hold on the game’s outcome, and every big play ignited the home crowd. 

“It’s homecoming,” Bollock said. “The boys are excited, and that’s what we have been working on in the two days I’ve been in charge. It’s all about playing with a fire in your gut.”

The Demons entered the half with a 22-6 lead, their first lead entering the break since Sept. 8 against Rifle. 

The second half began sloppy. An extended half-time for the homecoming festivities may have enabled rust to grow over both offenses. Four straight turnovers started the half. Summit couldn’t get the ball past the chains, and they turned the ball over to Glenwood, but a strip sack set the Tigers up at the Demons’ 42-yard line. Two plays later, Summit coughed up the ball back to the Demons. Glenwood didn’t have the ball long, as they coughed it up on their first set of downs. 

Summit began to assemble a drive after that as they worked their way into the red zone. Max Bollock didn’t care for the Tigers scoring on that drive, though. He snatched the ball from a Summit receiver’s hands, stopping the Tigers’ drive and giving the offense a long field. It was something Markovich didn’t want to deal with, so he just took the first snap 90 yards to the house to put the Demons up 30-6. He wasn’t done there. The two-way player stayed on the field for Summit’s ensuing drive and made another game-defining play. This time, Markovich was the one to snatch the ball out of midair as he made his fourth trip to the endzone, giving Glenwood a 36-6 lead. 

A different game was played in the fourth quarter, and Summit wasn’t going down without a fight. They calmed their nerves and put together a solid drive, capping it with a 4-yard touchdown pass to reach double digits, though their two-point try failed. 

The Tigers recovered a sneaky onside kick to set up their third touchdown drive, bringing the game within striking distance 36-18. They tried their instant onside kick out of the huddle once again, to no avail. 

Glenwood had excellent field position after recovering the short kick, but a Summit defender knocked the ball loose, giving the Tigers new life. Summit’s coaches decided to have fun on their next drive. A simple out route was seemingly taken care of, but the Summit receiver pitched the ball to his teammate as he was getting tackled, and the hook and ladder worked beautifully. Six quickly turned into eight as the Tigers weren’t done with their trickery. A gorgeous double pass worked perfectly to bring the score within two possessions, 36-26.

Glenwood had enough at that point. This time, they were the ones to calm their nerves as they put together a long touchdown drive of their own. Capped by a 25-yard rushing touchdown from quarterback Joaquin Sandoval, the Demons extended their lead to 42-26.

With more than 10 minutes still on the clock and a scary Summit offense, no one in the crowd felt safe with the lead. Summit immediately drove back down the field but couldn’t get past the Demons’ brick wall goal-line defense. Glenwood held them on fourth and goal, stealing the ball and all of the momentum back. 

A bad snap broke the Demons’ first down play, but Sandoval picked the ball off the ground and took it 90 yards to the house to ensure the game was fully locked away. 

“Finish strong and keep battling,” Bollock told his team. “We had to stay in the game and stay excited. We told them we believed in them, and they had to come together as a team and regroup.”

Glenwood improved to 4-4 on the season, and with their recent rejuvenation, the sky is the limit for this young Demons team. Glenwood travels to Eagle Valley next week to face the Devils before finishing their season at home against the Palisade Bulldogs. 

“We have some stuff we can tune up on both sides of the ball,” Bullock said. “We’re gonna build on this and just have to take it one play at a time, one quarter at a time, one half at a time.”