Miners hand Skyline 34-7 drubbing

Top-ranked Bingham reminded everyone Friday night, including Skyline, why the Miners are being lauded as the new Skyline.

On the heels of last year's 14-0 state championship season, Bingham looked as good as ever kicking off the 2007 season with a 34-7 win over the Eagles — on Skyline's home turf no less.

"I've been coaching for a long time, you don't see these kind of games here at Skyline very often," said Bingham coach Dave Peck. "Our kids came out ready. I thought we came out fired up, kind of controlled the line of scrimmage. I thought Sam (Langi) came out and ran really strong right off."

The onslaught began on Bingham's second drive, and the overwhelming 5A preseason favorite all but had the game wrapped up leading 21-0 after the first quarter.

Langi, the Miners' star running back, opened the scoring on the first play of Bingham's second drive with a 38-yard scamper through Skyline's porous defense.

Langi doubled that distance on Bingham's next drive with a 76-yard TD run to put his team in front 14-0.

"We came out prepared, we knew we weren't going to be handed this game, you have to come ready for the first snap," said Langi.

Langi finished the first half with 139 yards on seven carries, but it could have been much more. On Bingham's only scoring drive of the second quarter, a 26-yard field goal by Justin Sorensen, Bingham had its junior varsity skill position players on the field. As a result, Langi didn't have a single carry on the drive.

By halftime, Mike Edmunds scored on a 32-yard strike from Logan Cantwell and then fullback Forrest Dabb powered into the end zone from nine yards out to make it 31-0 at the break.

Skyline managed 203 yards of total offense in the first half, but it was a very deceiving statistic. Bingham's defense was dominant throughout, causing three first-half turnovers and forcing Skyline into numerous gimmick plays just to try and get first downs.

The only drama of the first half, and really of the game, occurred in the latter stages of both halves.

Entering Friday's game, Skyline hadn't been shut out since Nov. 6, 1986, a 47-0 playoff loss to Brighton. Since that game, the Eagles had gone 251 straight games without being shut out. Late in the first half, Skyline drove deep into Bingham territory but the drive stalled at the 2-yard line as Eagle running back Kalama Molisi was stuffed on the final play of the first half.

The shutout drama lasted until the final four minutes. Following another Sorensen field goal in the final six minutes, Skyline drove to Bingham's 30-yard line, but after three straight incompletions the Eagles were staring at a fourth-and-10 against the Miners' second-string defense.

With Skyline's state-record streak in jeopardy, Lanny Papanikolas connected with Molisi on a 30-yard slant pattern that the senior tailback took into the end zone.

"Sometimes there's a little bit of difference between varsity kids and the other kids who go in," said Peck. "To even think you could come out and shut Skyline out, that was never even mentioned."