3A high school football preview: Emery at Hurricane

Emery (7-4) at Hurricane (10-1)

3A state tournament quarterfinal

Friday, 5 p.m.

Parry's Power Guide: Hurricane by 35

All-time series: Hurricane leads 4-1

Coach vs. Coach: Emery's Jim Jones and Hurricane's Chris Homer, first meeting

Last meeting: Oct. 28, 1995 — Hurricane 29, Emery 28 (3A quarterfinal)

Emery's big upset of Region 10 champ Park City at Park City on Day 1 of the 3A tournament generated a ton of discussion throughout the classification.

And then Day 2 happened.

Judge's stunning upset of Cedar at Cedar High instantly became the story of the opening round, overshadowing everything else that had happened, including what Emery had done less than 24 hours earlier.

Discussions about what happened to Cedar have most definitely taken place in the city of Hurricane, where folks just can't believe that a Cedar team that thumped their team only a week earlier would turn around and fall in the first round.

Don't think for one second, however, that the Hurricane Tigers have forgotten about last week's other upset.

Indeed, the Tigers — at least their players and coaches — all know what Emery did to earn the right to face them in the quarterfinal round, and they all know what the Spartans will bring to the table when they travel to Hurricane at 5 p.m. Friday.

Hurricane coach Chris Homer definitely does.

It took him no more than a few moments of watching Emery film to realize how tough the Spartans play.

"My first thought, within two or three minutes of watching film on them, is they just have a bunch of tough kids that are working really hard to really extend their season," Homer said. "Going to Park City — they're a four seed, Park City's a one seed, it's at Park City and Park City's had a lot of success the past few years — and I think it spoke volumes that they went in there and basically outplayed them and just beat 'em.

"Park City fought back and made it close at the end, but if you watch the film, they were ahead the whole game and it seems like they were more determined. They've just got a bunch of tough kids that worry me to death."