3A high school football championship: Juan Diego beats Hurricane on final play — again

SALT LAKE CITY — The first two championship-game encounters between Juan Diego and Hurricane had followed the same remarkable script.

Both were defensive-minded slugfests, both went all the way down to the wire and both were ultimately won by Juan Diego in miraculous fashion in the south end zone of Rice-Eccles Stadium.

That the same script had unfolded twice in a row for Juan Diego — and twice in a row to Hurricane — was pretty unbelievable.

So while most expected their third straight championship showdown on Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium to be close yet again, nobody really believed that the exact same outcome would play out yet again.

Truth, however, was stranger than fiction.

Again.

After another incredibly close game, Juan Diego's offense marched 90 yards over the game's final 7:10, and kicker Skyler Doran, a senior who had never played a minute of football before this year, booted a 20-yard field goal just inside the right goalpost in the south end zone with no time on the clock to lift the Soaring Eagle to an incredible 10-7 victory.

"I don't know if you could write this script and say, 'This is something that's plausible,' " said Juan Diego coach John Colosimo.

Plausible or not, it happened again, and it led to euphoria — yet again — for Juan Diego — and heartbreak — yet again — for Hurricane.

Afterward, Colosimo couldn't have been more proud of his kids for the amazing manner in which they battled and battled on Friday. But he also couldn't have felt worse for Hurricane.

"My heart goes out to them," he said. "I told (UHSAA Executive Director) Rob Cuff, 'Let's make 'em co-champs. Let's get two first-place trophies, and we'll put it side-by-side in the record book.' I'm OK with that, and I'm sure my kids would be, too. Why not? They are champions. They are. You can't take anything from those guys, and I certainly hope they understand that and realize that.

"It's just the way it's been."

For a while on Friday, it seemed as though Hurricane was finally poised to get over the hump.

QB Adam Long completed a 34-yard TD pass to Weston Yarley on Hurricane's opening offensive possession, and there was a feeling throughout Rice-Eccles that this was finally going to be the Tigers' time.

Juan Diego's defense, however, didn't let that happen.