Pikes Peak Christian coach Kelvin Thorne is a city guy leading an 8-man football squad that roams across rural Colorado battling small-town schools.

Our state is known for glorious mountains, but Thorne spends much of his coaching life on eastern plains football fields as flat as the surrounding terrain.

These towns fiercely love their teams, and many boast long and proud 8-man traditions. Thorne and his Eagles, based near the center of Colorado Springs, are fresh faces among the elite of 8-man football in Colorado.

This week, Thorne and his Eagles kneeled in a circle after practice. He spoke softly to players, and the scene offered a fascinating contrast. All the Eagles are clean cut, including Thorne’s starting quarterback son Jackson.

Meanwhile, the senior member/hipster of the circle sported a free-flowing, gray-tinged beard along with an earring. Thorne told his players, over and over, anything is possible.

He’s right. Anything is possible in 8-man after this team’s improbable rise. Thorne and the Eagles play host Saturday to Hoehne in the state semis. Kickoff is 1 p.m.

Friday night at PPCS, the Eagles delivered a dramatic 29-28 victory over top-seeded West Grand in the quarters. West Grand coach Chris Brown has won four state titles with 15 rides to the state semis.

The Eagles blocked trip No. 16. With 15 seconds left, Tommy Harmon kicked the game-winning field goal, which doubled as the team’s first successful field goal of the season.

But, wait. Drama remained. On the ensuing kickoff, West Grand threw a long lateral to star Hugh Wheatley, who roared down the sideline with one man to beat.

That one man was Harmon, who made a lunging, game-saving tackle.

PPCS senior star Chris Bolt nervously watched the final seconds.

“Ah, I was just praying,” Bolt says. “I knew that in some way, shape or form someone would get some kind of hand on him, or something. I believe in the guys that we have.”

That belief is deep. Bolt has attended PPCS 13 years, dating to kindergarten, but he’s in the minority of these Eagles. More than half of the players are home-schooled. They don’t attend PPCS. They do play for the team.

“The more the merrier,” Bolt says of his home-school teammates. “All the school kids love them and we all work together and it’s quite a great community to be part of. It’s amazing.”

For me, this week’s return to PPCS was an amazing journey to my past. A decade ago, my sons — Luke and Caleb — played football for Thorne and the Eagles.

My father, David Leon, sat in the stands at PPCS shouting support for his grandsons. When he died, I purchased two dozen cold-weather jackets for PPCS. During Friday night’s frigid victory, the Eagles wore jackets with this message stitched inside: “In Memory of David Leon Ramsey.”

For years, I was a devoted student of 8-man, which is a different beast than the 11-man game, but not radically so. The field is 80 yards long and 40 yards wide, as opposed to 100 and 50 in 11-man. Six-man football resembles a track meet more than traditional football, but you can watch 8-man for 10 minutes before realizing six players are missing.

In Colorado, 8-man has long been dominated by small towns. In this century, Hoehne (pop. 111), Caliche (263), Merino (281), Granada (496), Walsh (514), Stratton (652) and Haxtun (914) have won titles.

Thorne faced a daunting challenge. He leads a private city school against small-town teams inhabited by players born and raised with the goal of winning titles.

Many of the current Eagles have competed together since junior high. They’ve developed bonds as deep as those small-town bonds.

While preparing last week, Thorne referred to West Grand as “Goliath.” The Eagles knew all about the giant’s strength. Last season, West Grand defeated PPCS, 52-2.

The loss could have been deflating. Instead, PPCS running back/linebacker Hudson Grant said, it was inspiring.

“That loss,” Grant said, “it hurt a lot. We didn’t want that to happen again, so we worked really hard. We wanted that win really bad.”

Two steps, and they are big ones, remain for PPCS to claim the title.

In Saturday’s semis, on a hill overlooking Colorado Springs, the Eagles continue their unlikely crusade to bring an 8-man title home to a sprawling city.