High school football: QB, linemen lead Mountain Crest past Northridge

HYRUM — Mustang quarterback Eddy Hall passed all over the Knight defense en route to a 38-14 Mountain Crest win over Northridge, Wednesday.

The 5-foot-10, 170-pound junior opened the scoring with a 1-yard dive into the end zone to give the Mustangs the early advantage 7-0 just under four minutes into the first quarter.

Hall went 11 for 16 and 190 yards passing for four total touchdowns, chipping in 74 yards on the ground and even completed a 2-point conversion in the third quarter.

"It was all the linemen tonight," Hall said about his performance in the game. "They blocked for me when they needed to — to the left, the right, up the middle."

Hall also executed a fake punt when it looked as though the Knights would block it, scrambling 25 yards to get the first down and continue the drive Mustang drive.

"It was just a read," Hall said when asked if the play was a designed fake.

"We just took it."

The Mountain Crest defense dominated all night, holding Northridge to just two touchdowns in the game — a 2-yard keeper by senior quarterback Karson Casteel with four minutes to go in the first quarter and a 7-yard pass from Casteel to senior tight end Kalen Larsen with just over seven minutes left in the contest.

"It's always the defense that helps us win the game," Hall said.

Northridge running back David Adams had 114 yards on 17 carries and cleared the 1,000-yards for the season hurdle in the game.

"It feels great," Adams said about the milestone. "I just had to get 80 yards. I think there are only two or three running backs in Northridge history to do that. My line is great at making big holes."

Casteel completed 7 of 17 passing attempts for 90 yards and snuck in a touchdown on the ground.

Mountain Crest junior receiver Fiamafili Pututau had 161 yards receiving in the game. With four minutes left in the first quarter, he grabbed 48 of those on a pass from Hall to get the Mustangs down to the Northridge 11-yard line. To cap off the drive, he caught his lone touchdown pass of the night from 11 yards out to make it 14-7 Mountain Crest.

"Our offense did tremendously good," Hall said. "We gave them a goal all week just to not let them hit me, and they mostly did that."

With the win, Mountain Crest improves to 6-4 on the season and will begin state tournament play next week.

Mustang head coach Mark Wootton said it was nice to get the victory.

"It feels good," Wootton said. "The kids, once they get rolling they can be pretty tough. We went really hard this week."