Pete Morgan, Gilpin County.  September 15, on a warm Friday night, 25 of the Gilpin Middle School Football players made the trip to Gold Digger Stadium on I70 in Idaho Springs for a special game against the Clear Creek Gold Diggers. At the middle school level games are typically played right after school on Thursdays in front of small crowds of devoted loving parents, but not on this night. GMS was invited to be the opponent in the early game on the night of their Homecoming, it was a big crowd by middle school standards and Gilpin did not give their hosts the outcome that they were hoping for.

Gilpin won the coin toss and received with good field position at the 40 yard line, no finesse was utilized on that first drive as 8th Grader Jimmy Immordino, marched right through the heart of the Clear Creek Defense and scored in just a few plays. Clear Creek showed signs of life early on their first drive with a long pass completion to the Gilpin County 15 yard line. Those signs were quickly extinguished for good following a series of disastrous negative yardage plays and penalties capped off with a Gilpin interception by 8th grader Rodríguez on the Gilpin 45.

It only took one play to capitalize on the Gold Digger's misfortune when Gilpin quarterback Alex Rodriguez connected with wide receiver Bradley Robinson deep down field for a 45 yard touchdown pass. Following another Gold Digger interception, also pick off by Rodríguez, Gilpin marched right down the field with a few big runs by 7th grader Bradley Robinson. With the 2nd quarter winding down, Kage Anthony got the ball and got outside and ran for a 28 yard touchdown on his first appearance in the game. The Score at Halftime was Gilpin 20 Clear Creek 0.

Early in the 3rd quarter Gilpin quickly scored another Kage Anthony long run touchdown making the game 28-0. From this point forward everyone on the Gilpin sideline found themselves getting time out of the field and building experience for the future. The Gilpin Defense remained absolutely dominant from kick off to the final play. The Gold Diggers only managed 3 first downs but when all was said and done they were held to negative yardage.

Tiny Gilpin 6th grader Roland Keller absolutely baffled the Clear Creek offensive line by simply not trying to go through them and they never figured it out and adjusted, 70lb Roland was simply running around the line to put pressure the passer on every single play. Including a 4th and forever sack on the quarterback deep in the back field.

(Originally published in the September 21, 2017 print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)