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Clear Creek slips past Summit on a snowy homecoming Friday, 14-28

It was colder and snowier than most homecoming games, and that made losing in front of the bundled-up home crowd just a little harder.

On Friday night, Summit Tigers football lost to the Clear Creek Golddiggers, 14-28, on the first snowy night of the season below 10,000 feet. The game started sloppy on both sides: receivers dropped passes, kickers squibbed extra points and both sides had two turnovers apiece. Imagine if Summit hadn’t missed a field goal on the first drive — the tone might have been much different from the start.

But enough of that. Neither team came close to the endzone until 3:30 left in the second quarter, when the Clear Creek quarterback connected with his favorite receiver on fourth and 5 at the Tigers 18 yard line.

Summit responded right after with a long and impressive drive that started at their 46 yard line, thanks to a killer 20-yard return from senior Matthew Francomano. Fellow senior running back Adolfo Vasquez punched the ball through the Clear Creek line on third and goal, tying the game at 7-7 for halftime. The Tigers managed to score in just under three minutes after nearly two quarters of nada, and that alone warmed the crowd. The student section started cheering and bellowing as the team left and homecoming royalty arrived. No need to imagine this one — the boys entered the locker room with momentum.

Clear Creek had other ideas. They started the second half with a 50-yard run on a slant for a touchdown and pulled ahead, 14-7, in just 30 seconds.

Summit didn’t respond immediately, but it didn’t take long. Two drives later, Vale Hildebrand gobbled up a shanked punt and ran deep into Clear Creek territory. Ty Brown-Wolf finished the job with a run up the gut to tie things again, 14-14.

That’s when Clear Creek took off. The Diggers responded with a 90-yard kickoff return to go ahead once more, 14-21, and that was when things just felt… colder. Summit changed tactics and mixed run plays with pass plays, and starting quarterback Jake Gillum mixed in and out with Brendan Collins.

Clear Creek scored once more with six minutes left in the fourth quarter to go up by two touchdowns. The Tigers had another long, smart drive down the field — shades of their comeback mentality from late in the second quarter — but got stopped cold on fourth and one-last-try. Final score was 14-28, Clear Creek, on homecoming.

 

 

 


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