3A high school football championship: Clutch kick lifts Juan Diego to title

Missed extra points on Juan Diego's two first-half touchdowns loomed large enough on Jaron Bentrude's mind to persuade the junior kicker to come out of the locker room early at halftime and practice field goals.

In that situation, with no other players on the field with him except his holder, Bentrude drilled one field goal try after another.

When he lined up for a 22-yard field goal with 4.0 seconds left, Bentrude did his best to channel his halftime successes and ignore his disastrous in-game point-after attempts.

"I just tried to keep on visualizing it going in and through the uprights," Bentrude said.

Vision became reality for Bentrude. He drilled the field goal to lift Juan Diego to a 21-18 victory over Hurricane on Friday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The Soaring Eagle claimed their first state title since 2004. Juan Diego also earned its first 3A football title and became only the third Utah high school team to compile a 14-0 record.

Senior quarterback Brian May set up Bentrude's big game-winner with a 55-yard screen pass to Tana Vea that set Juan Diego up at the Hurricane 3-yard line. Vea nearly made it to the end zone after breaking a tackle or two but was stopped on a touchdown-saving shoestring tackle by Gary Bracken.

It offered Juan Diego a second chance in a game that appeared headed to overtime only seconds earlier. After blocking a third extra point, Hurricane rallied to knot it up at 18-18 with 50.7 seconds remaining when Gordie Dotson punched the ball in from four yards out.

The Soaring Eagle did not feel content to protect the ball and take their chances in overtime. They felt confident they could end the game in regulation.

"We knew we could do it," May said. "When we got in the huddle, we knew we could do this. Everybody had confidence in each other."

Juan Diego felt confident because it produced a crucial touchdown in another last-second situation before halftime. After Hurricane cut the lead to 6-3 on a 23-yard field goal from Cory Edwards with 8.3 seconds left in the first half, Lars Gunderson took the ensuing kickoff back 97 yards to make it 12-3.

Gunderson ripped off the second longest kickoff return in a state title game. His run fell two yards shy of equaling the record set by Taylorsville's Ryan Filipe against Skyline in the 1999 5A championship game.