From Deseret News archives:
High school football: Total effort lifts Eagles over Knights
The Eagles dominated the Knights from start to finish with basic, textbook, smash-mouth football.
"We were hoping the kids would put together a game like this because we've kind of been on a roller-coaster the past few weeks," Skyline coach Roger DuPaix said.
From the opening drive, Skyline had its triple-option attack working to perfection, racking up 359 total yards for the game with only four of those yards coming through the air on one complete pass. Running back Algernon Brown had a big game, with 130 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Tupou Hautao and Kevin Wagstaff also added a rushing score each.
"Our kids finally put four quarters together," DuPaix said. "Offense and defense, we did it all well today."
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles had the Knights' offense befuddled the entire game. Lone Peak couldn't get anything going running or throwing the football in managing only five first downs and 80 total yards.
"Lone Peak had a couple of their key starters hobbled with injuries, and that's tough on them when they don't have their best kids healthy," DuPaix said.
DuPaix, however, was not discrediting his own team's defense in recognizing that Lone Peak's two main running backs and linebackers — Kade Andrus and Zane Mendenhall — were out with injuries.
"Our defense has been getting better and better and I think the kids are finally catching the vision of what our coaches want them to do," DuPaix said.
The only negative in Skyline's performance was its six penalties for 55 yards and two turnovers. But neither of those fumbles came back to haunt the Eagles.
Skyline took advantage of great field position early by scoring on its first two drives, one of which started at midfield and the second at Lone Peak's 40-yard line. Brown put the Eagles up 7-0 when he burst through the left side and bowled 31 yards to paydirt. Hautao quickly added a 15-yard burst right up the middle to give Skyline a 14-0 first-quarter lead.
On the first play of the Eagles' next drive, they fumbled the ball away to Lone Peak at the Skyline 19-yard line. But all the Knights could get out of it was a 32-yard field goal by Josh Edwards. Then, midway through the second, the Eagles struck again when Brown bounced off a tackle at the line of scrimmage and ran left for a 30-yard TD run.
The Eagles really knew things were going their way when, right before the half, a 37-yard field-goal attempt by Mike Laganiere hit the cross bar and bounced through — sending Skyline into the break with a 24-3 lead. The Eagles removed any doubt when Wagstaff scored on a 7-yard keeper early in the third quarter.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com
