High school football: 8 quality teams still in 3A chase

The memories of what happened to Delta exactly a year ago haven't been forgotten by anyone associated with the Rabbits' football program.

Park City's crushing loss at the hands of Logan in the opening round of the 3A playoffs last year has been frequently discussed by prep football aficionados and others because of how painful it was for the Miners. But what some forget is that Delta endured the exact same heartbreaking loss against the same team on the same field just one week later.

Heading into a quarterfinal round on Friday which will see the real action get underway in Class 3A, however, you can rest assured that the Rabbits haven't forgotten about what happened a season ago.

Delta, the 10-1 runner-up from Region 8, will travel to Region 11 champion Morgan on Friday in the 3A quarterfinals, and the Rabbits will take with them the memories gleaned from last year's crushing quarterfinal defeat — and a stern resolve to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"We had a lot of returning starters play in that game against Logan," said Delta coach Russ Henrie. "Over the season, we've frequently told our kids, 'Maybe that loss will help us get a big win in a quarterfinal game or in some other big game — or even help us to get the state title.'

"Our kids remember the awful feeling they felt at the end of that game ... I'm hoping that'll help us. We've tried to get as much mileage out of it as we can."

Henrie has repeatedly gone out of his way this fall to thank the wonderful fan support his school has received, and he's expecting a huge contingent of folks from Delta City to be on hand this Friday when the Rabbits try to beat one of the hottest teams in Class 3A — only unbeaten Juan Diego has won more games in a row than Morgan — and advance to next week's semifinals at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

On the heels of a first round in which there was a firm favorite in seven of the eight contests, the second round of the 3A postseason promises to be an entirely different proposition.

Defending champ Logan's showdown at unbeaten and No. 1 Juan Diego has grabbed most of the attention in 3A — and deservedly so — but all four quarterfinal games have the potential to be outstanding.

Interestingly, all four Class 3A regions have two teams left, with Region 11 (Morgan and Logan) squaring off with Region 8 (Delta and Juan Diego) and Region 9 (Hurricane and Cedar) matchup up against Region 10 (Judge and Park City).

How those regions fare against one will be decided on Friday, but this much seems certain already: The overall field in Class 3A is very deep this year, which should make for some great entertainment over the next three weeks.

"I think all eight teams could win it all," said Hurricane coach Chris Homer, whose sentiments were echoed by Henrie.

Both coaches feel that Cedar is better than people think, and if you throw the Redmen into the mix as a contender, you could make an argument that all eight remaining teams are good enough be a factor over the next several weeks.

"I think this is up for grabs," said Henrie.

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E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com