Eagle Valley Stalls in First Half Before 14-0 Glenwood Win

Glenwood Springs —Fourteen points. Zero points. That’s the scoreboard, but it’s also the mood.

Eagle Valley football beat Glenwood Springs 14-0 on Friday night in Gypsum. On paper, a shutout is a shutout. In practice, this was a team that spent the entire first half staring at a blank screen while the clock ticked down to zero.

Let’s do the math. The Devils went down the field on their very first possession of the game. Nine plays. They stalled on downs with seven yards to the end zone. Seven yards. That’s less than the length of a standard pickup truck. They had the ball, they had the momentum, and they gave it all back because they couldn’t convert when it mattered most.

For context, the game was 0-0 at halftime. Not 1-0. Not 7-0. Nothing.

The turning point wasn’t a touchdown. It was an interception. Macklin Brandt undercut a pass for a pick, swinging the momentum hard in the Devils’ favor. “I saw my man break outside, kept him tight and got the interception,” Brandt said. It was a simple play, but it broke the spell.

From there, Eagle Valley scored 14 unanswered points in the second half. The defense held strong all night, despite giving up first downs multiple times on third or fourth-and-short due to offsides penalties. Seniors Levi Flach, Cutler Merlihan, Luke Enman, and Brady Kraft made plays when the Devils needed them. Merlihan even grabbed a runner by the ankle in the backfield, forcing a fumble at midfield.

This win moves Eagle Valley to 5-4 overall and 4-1 in the 3A Western Slope conference. That’s good enough for second place in the league. With the 3A playoffs expanding to 24 teams this year, that second-place finish should be enough for the Devils to host a playoff game. Hosting matters. It saves travel costs and keeps the home crowd in the stands.

But the season isn’t over. Coach Chris Lake was blunt about the performance. “We got out of here with a win. It’s a lesson learned. Hopefully they’ll take it to heart and prepare for next week.” He didn’t sugarcoat it. The team played worse than they are capable of playing.

Senior quarterback Colter Blakey agreed. “We can play a lot better than that,” he said. “We’re a better team than that, but we came out with the win and that’s what’s important.”

The win was earned, but it was ugly. The offense was sluggish. The defense was penalized itself into trouble. The only thing that saved the night was the second-half surge after the interception.

Next up, Eagle Valley faces Grand Junction Central on Oct. 29. That’s the final regular-season game before the playoffs. If the Devils want to enter the postseason with confidence, they need to fix the offensive issues that plagued them against Glenwood Springs.

The bottom line? Eagle Valley is 5-4 and second in the 3A Western Slope. They likely host a playoff game. But they played poorly against Glenwood Springs. If they don’t improve against Grand Junction Central, the 14-0 win might look less like a statement and more like a fluke.