High school football: Layton clobbers Weber to claim region title

LAYTON — Presented with an opportunity to claim their first back-to-back region championships, the Layton Lancers on Friday completely trounced the Weber Warriors 28-7.

With the victory, this Layton team has accomplished what no previous Layton team ever had, and for coach Jim Batchelor it was pretty sweet.

"It feels great, I'm especially happy for this group of kids, they've worked really hard and deserve it," said Batchelor.

Leading the way on offense for the Lancers was their giant senior receiver Thomas Bryson, who at 6-foot-5 towered over the Weber defenders. After struggling to a scoreless first quarter the Lancers turned to Bryson to give their offense some punch, and what he delivered were knockout blows. The first big play was a 59-yard touchdown reception where he split the corner and safety on a skinny post route and raced into the end zone.

Not learning from their mistakes, Weber continued to play Bryson tight at the line and he continued to make huge plays. On Weber's second possession in the second half Bryson had a 50-yard reception down to set up a 25-yard touchdown run by Kimble Jensen. Bryson finished the game with an eye-popping 9 catches for 209 yards, for a ridiculous average of 23 yards per catch. Even Bryson was surprised the defense didn't give him more of a safety cushion.

"The defense kept playing me up tight, I guess underestimating my ability," Bryson said. "I was just trying to make plays."

Doing a masterful job of getting the ball into the hands of Bryson and the other Lancer receivers was senior quarterback Camren Applegate. Behind an offensive line that gave him an incredible amount of time, Applegate picked apart the Weber defense for 387 yards and two touchdowns, including a 20-yard screen pass to Jensen.

Layton's defense did its part in the victory, forcing three turnovers and keeping Weber's offensive unit off the scoreboard.

The lone bright spot for Weber came early in the fourth quarter when Jacob McKay ran a reverse kickoff return 90 yards for a touchdown despite fumbling the exchange. On the ensuing kickoff Weber successfully executed the onsides kick, giving them the ball at the Layton 35-yard line and only trailing by two touchdowns. However, on the next play Layton's Josh Johnson intercepted a Weber pass to kill any hope of a comeback.