On September 15, 2022, Pikes Peak Christian cancelled their scheduled 8-man football game against the Eagles at Gilpin County Stadium due to injury and not having enough players left to finish the season. The Justice Phoenix of Lafayette filled in as a last-minute replacement opponent that day. Both the Eagles and the Phoenix are young and have barely enough players to field squads themselves. It would be a hard-fought contest of evenly matched teams. The Eagles prevailed that day by a score of 20-8. It was the last time Gilpin tasted victory.

A rematch of the teams took place Saturday, October 29, at Boulder High School. It is Justice’s home field since they don’t have one of their own. The Phoenix entered the contest with the same record as the Eagles and would be looking for revenge. To complicate matters, Gilpin’s Coach Craig Ball suffered a head injury during an incident at Gilpin High School two days previous so play-calling duties fell upon assistant coach David Sechler. Even though not fully recovered from the unfortunate accident, Coach Ball said, “There wasn’t any way I was going to let it keep me from attending the game.” Dedicated to his players, Ball felt his place was on the sideline with them.

The Eagles opened the game with an impressive drive to inside Justice’s 10- yard line. Goal-to-go, four plays couldn’t get them into the end zone. The first quarter ended in a scoreless tie.

Gilpin struck first with nine minutes left in the second quarter with a 3-yard rushing touchdown by Mason Sechler #26. Zach Gebhart #50 ran the football in for the conversion to put the Eagles ahead 8-0. Justice answered with a score and conversion of their own to tie the score 8-8 at halftime.

Justice pulled ahead in the third quarter bringing the tally to 14-8. Down but not out, the Eagles tied the score with a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Connor Holloway #6. Merely one minute into the fourth quarter, Justice took the lead 20-14 in the closely contested back-and-forth battle. Toward the end of the game, the Eagles scored a touchdown on a long pass play, but it was called back for holding. Driving the football to Justice’s 15-yard line with the clock down to four seconds, the Eagles’ final play of the year was a pass that fell incomplete near the goal line. Final score: Justice 20, Eagles 14.

Enduring a difficult season, the boys and coaches never gave up. To their great credit, they continued working hard and no one quit the team. Next year’s squad will be stacked with bigger, stronger, and more experienced juniors joined by a half dozen promising freshmen.