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Intensity ramps up when Longhorns, Rams meet

Joelle MilholmPost Independent Staff

The two schools are only 15 miles apart. So when the Roaring Fork and Basalt football teams face each other, it’s more than just a game. It’s a throw down, a battle that must be won to defend their name and status for the next 365 days.Over the years the Roaring Fork-Basalt rivalry has become quite a spectacle, drawing praise from coaches and players on both squads.”It’s fun. It’s always good bragging rights for another year,” said Roaring Fork senior quarterback Kade Gianinetti. “It always steps up the intensity, it’s always a different level. It’s a different feeling on the field, that game.”Gianinetti’s teammate Tyler Hunt agrees.”The intensity level is way up. The energy is way higher,” he said. “You start the game off that much faster.”Feelings are equal on the other side of the football field. Basalt head coach Forrest Grosh has seen the rivalry firsthand as he enters his fourth year with Basalt.”The week leading up to it is a little more intense, there is a little more excitement on the field knowing we are going to play a team 15 miles down the road,” Grosh said. “It’s been good to play Roaring Fork, they’ve put together a solid team every year.” For three consecutive seasons, the Roaring Fork-Basalt showdown has been the last line on the regular season schedule – a mark to aim for, something to spend the whole season preparing for.”For the past three years it has been the last game of the season, so we’ve had that to look forward to all season,” Grosh said.This year, however, the match up will hit the gridiron at Roaring Fork on Oct. 20 as both teams’ second-to-last game of the season. But that shouldn’t change the intensity, at least according to Roaring Fork’s Trevor Hunt.”It’s that little extra you have to give (in the rivalry game),” he said. “It’s not just ‘win.’ It’s ‘you gotta stomp ’em.'”


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