Miners win 'strange' game

SOUTH JORDAN — Bingham coach Dave Peck used words like "weird" and "strangest" to describe the No. 1 ranked Miners' football game against visiting American Fork on Wednesday night.

Davis Knight — the Cavemen's coach who was on the short end of Bingham's 42-28 victory — added the adjective "exciting" to the mix.

Wild, crazy, bizarre and entertaining would be a few more apropos descriptions for the game, which ended up in a shootout despite a 7-7 halftime score.

Outright wacky might best describe the third quarter, which saw the teams combine for 42 points and reels full of highlight plays.

The thrilling third quarter got off to a dramatic start. American Fork fumbled on its second play on its own 14-yard line. Bingham recovered, and running back Sam Langi punched in his second touchdown of the night to give the Miners a 14-7 lead.

Bingham, which dominated the first half but couldn't capitalize due to a slew of turnovers, held the Cavemen on their next possession and scored again on a Jordan Pendleton touchdown reception to go up 21-7.

That TD came at the 4:40 mark of the third quarter. By the time the scoreboard clicked down to 1:44 of the same quarter, a remarkable four more touchdowns had been scored.

In order, they included a 66-yard touchdown pass play from American Fork quarterback Taylor Jones to Matt Harward (3:18), a 92-yard kickoff return for a TD by Bingham's Tyson Hill (3:04), a return-the-favor 92-yard kickoff return score by AF's Harward (2:52) and a 79-yard touchdown catch by the BYU-bound Pendleton (1:44).

Bingham's Doug Fiefia and American Fork's Jake Packer arrived a bit late to the scoring party, but they each added touchdowns in the fourth quarter to complete a nutty-but-fun 56-point second half.

"For a UEA ballgame on a Wednesday night, there were some exciting things," Knight said.

The problem for the Knights wasn't the excitement level, however. It was the lack of offense. American Fork (4-5) only managed to gain 142 yards of total offense against the 9-0 Miners. The Cavemen's first touchdown was a 55-yard fumble return by Zack Peterson, which gave them a rare lead over Bingham.

Knight said the difference in the game was simply that the Cavemen "didn't get enough first downs." But he was proud of how his team stuck around despite the lack of offense which produced just seven first downs.