EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah (ABC4 Sports) – It will be an all-Region 4 showdown for the 6A high school state football championship.
Corner Canyon extended its winning streak to 39 in a row with a 45-30 victory over East in the first semifinal of the day at Cedar Valley High School.
Jaxson Dart threw for five touchdowns and ran for another, as the Chargers built a 31-0 lead in the first half, and withstood a second half rally by the Leopards.
“You know, their offense is a team that really likes to control the clock,” Dart said. “So we knew that if we got an early lead on them, it would be hard for them to adjust to try to make a run to come back. It was big that we got up early.”
Dart threw two touchdown passes to Talmage Handley, and one each to Noah Kjar, Dylan Carlsen and Cody Hagen.
Izaak Zimmerman threw touchdown passes to Mapa Vaenuku and Orion Maile-Kaufusi for the Leopards.
“It’s so tough, and they’re so loaded and they have so much talent over there,” said Chargers head coach Erik Kjar. “They run it so well. It’s always a huge challenge. When you don’t see it a lot it becomes tough. I thought they did a really good job. Our defensive coordinator and our DB coach had a good game plan for it. I thought they did a good job getting our kids ready.”
Corner Canyon will play for its third straight championship next week against Lone Peak.
The Knights won a back and forth battle against Skyridge Thursday night, 28-24.
The Falcons jumped out to a 17-7 halftime lead, led by a 6-yard touchdown pass from McCae Hillstead to Mitch Adamson, and a 3-yard touchdown run by Jeter Fenton.
But the Knights, playing without head coach Bart Brockbank, who tested positive for COVID-19, dominated the third quarter.
Two touchdown runs by Luke Durfey gave Lone Peak a 21-17 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Skyridge took the lead right back on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Hillstead to James Palmer. But on the ensuing kickoff, Kao Hansen fielded the ball at the 6-yard line, and raced untouched into the endzone for a 94-yard kick return to give Lone Peak the lead for good.
“Words can’t describe the feeling that I have right now,” said Lone Peak quarterback Jonah Heimuli, who threw a 27-yard touchdown pass to Luke Tucker in the first half. “It’s been a dream, so I’m just excited and ready to play the championship. This is not what I expected. It was back and forth the whole time. Special teams came out with a lot of game-changing plays. The offense, after a while, we finally got rolling a little bit.”
Britton Berry sealed the game with an interception with less than two minutes remaining.
Corner Canyon (13-0) beat Lone Peak (12-1) in the regular season back on September 24th, 35-25. The Chargers also knocked off the Knights in last year’s semifinals, 34-7.
