Gunnison football finishes league undefeated after last-minute field goal

Hosting state game Saturday, November 2 at 2 p.m.

Talk about a turnaround. Last year the Gunnison Cowboys high school football team finished league play with a record of 0-7. This year, they completely flip-flopped their record, finishing with a league title and a league record of 7-0.
Three players from the Crested Butte Community School make the trip every day to Gunnison to play on the team: Liam Mortell, Grant Johnson and Michael Ryan.
Mortell has been a part of the program the past four years and starts as an offensive tackle and nose tackle and is the captain of the team this year. Mortell credits the teams turn around to a couple of things.
“We have a lot of experience this year and kids worked hard over the summer,” says Mortell. “And we have team chemistry—we’re a close team.”
The regular season came to a climactic close on Friday, October 25 in Gunnison when they hosted Olathe, which was 6-0 at the time as well. Gunnison jumped out to a 15-0 lead but Olathe climbed back into the game and the score was tied 22-22 in the fourth quarter with Olathe driving. An interception gave Gunnison the ball on their own 20-yard line and they drove almost the entire length of the field to set up for the game-winning field goal with three seconds left and claim the league title and finish 7-0.
“It was definitely the greatest game we ever had,” says Mortell. “We definitely didn’t think we’d go undefeated but we knew we would do better than last year.”
Gunnison now heads into the post-season the fifth-ranked team in the 2A tournament and will host Ft. Lupton on Saturday, November 2 at 2 p.m. in Gunnison.
“I really don’t know anything about them,” says Mortell. “I just know they’re from somewhere near Denver. We’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing: Play our football.”