Boys basketball walks away victorious after an intense cross town rival game

Emily Brey • January 22, 2017

Rivalry games always bring a big crowd, intense energy, and they ultimately put the players’ pride on the line. Tuesday February 17, Fossil Ridge faced a strong and very talented Rocky Mountain (7-8) team, and after a hard fought game, Fossil (7-7) took the 73-65 win over the Lobos.

Colby Pipher bodying up against a Rocky Lobo Tuesday, January 17. Photo Credit: Haley Rockwell.

Coach Johanson knew it was going to be a close game, and with that said, he put his best players out on the paint for the tip off. Braxton Bertolette, Garrett Ripsam, Luke Lauby, Cam Dehart, and Colby Pipher took the court for Fossil, and squared up against Joe Elliot, Xavier Johnson, Tyler Hyland, Joe Urynowicz, and Noah Lovell for Rocky.

From the sound of the first whistle, the boys flew across the court. Point guards Bertolette and Elliot came out on fire. Bertolette racked up (33 pts) with his quality playmaking as well as individual skill.

Alex Price (6 pts) came into the game, and was very effective at slowing the game down and allowing the SaberCats to keep possession of the ball. After a few minutes of work, Price hit a three point shot along with 3 layups; a few great additional points for Fossil.

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With the first quarter coming to a close, the SaberCats held a 14-13 lead. It was neck-in-neck, there was not by any means a “better team”. With the second quarter underway, the crowd got a little harsh, especially on Bertolette.

Price drained two more three point shots, and played strong defense against the Lobos. He along with Dehart (5 pts) and Pipher (5 pts) staked their place in their defensive zone, shutting down a majority of Lobo drives made by Johnson (13 pts), and Urynowicz (7 pts).

Colby Pipher on defense against Rocky’s Xavier Johnson Tuesday, January 17. Photo Credit: Haley Rockwell.

Both teams made their way to the locker room after a hard fought first half. The score sat in favor of the SaberCats 34-29, and there was almost too much energy buzzing in Fossil’s gym. The fans were getting a bit rowdy, and actually, three Rocky students were asked to leave after getting a bit too aggressive towards the Fossil players.

The second half was just as intense as the first. The score remained very close until halfway through the fourth quarter when the SaberCats began pulling away. When the clock ran itself down, Fossil had won the game.

Braxton Bertolette shoots the ball in cross town rival game against Rocky Mountain Tuesday, January 17. Photo Credit: Haley Rockwell.

Cam Dehart said, “A tremendous rush of adrenaline hit me, I was very proud of the team, we worked crazy hard the entire game, we never lacked energy and that showed. It’s nice having that sense of pride hit you when you beat a rival school.”

The boys won their game on Friday, January 20, against Horizon High School 59-49.

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About the Contributor

Emily Brey, Sports Editor

Emily Brey is a senior at Fossil Ridge High School who is in her third year on the Etched In Stone staff and is Co-Editor of the Sports BEAT. Emily plays varsity soccer for Fossil and also plays for Arsenal Colorado on the ‘00 Academy team. She is committed to play soccer at Colorado State University - Pueblo and plans to study business and law in college. After attending CSUP, she hopes to attend CU where she will go for her MBA.

Between taking on a full schedule and all of her extracurricular commitments, Emily is a very busy bee this year. Emily is serving as Vice President of FBLA here at Fossil, and is a member of Key Club and NTHS (National Technical Honor Society). She is an ambitious young lady whose reliability, organization, and work ethic has helped her achieve many goals in her time thus far at Fossil Ridge. She is a huge fan of Lana Del Rey and the bands, All Time Low, SWMRS, Waterparks, and The Wrecks. She enjoys spending time outside and organizing things, which relaxes her. When she isn’t covering a story or playing soccer, Emily enjoys being a homebody and watching movies.

The friendly, family-like environment that the journalism program at Fossil encompasses has been something she has valued since freshman year. She would love to be able to continue journalistic work after high school. Emily looks forward to leading the Journalism 1 writers, no matter if that’s in journalism or just life in general. Plus, she hopes to inspire the younger writers to report on other topics besides sports, just because that’s something that she wishes she would’ve done the past two years. Her main goal for the year in journalism is to get better with her coverage, especially with using multiple media platforms. Emily wants to try and expand from her comfort zone of sports writing, hoping to experience writing different journalistic topics.