High school football: Cottonwood shuts out Pine View in fight-marred game

ST. GEORGE — Cottonwood's no-huddle, spread offense was unstoppable, and Colts running back Nadan Hosea was nearly untackle-able as Cottonwood blew out Pine View 35-0 on Friday night.

The game was marred by a brawl midway through the fourth quarter. Two Cottonwood players were ejected and one Pine View player was thrown out, and both teams were counseled by the officials to remove all their starters.

"There were cheap shots all over the place and finally enough was enough," Pine View assistant coach Telly Esplin said. "We try to teach our players not to react to that kind of cheap stuff, but I guess they couldn't take it anymore."

With the Panthers trying to get on the board in the fourth quarter, Cottonwood committed two roughing-the-passer penalties, followed by a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. After yet another late hit on Panthers quarterback Alec Mecham, the fight broke out with the 22 players on the field. Both teams' coaches spent their efforts in stopping the fight and trying to keep the reserve players on the sidelines.

"It was an ugly, frustrating night," Esplin said. "We'd like to forget this one."

After the brawl and the officials' recommendations, Cottonwood coach Cecil Thomas led his starting offense and defense to the locker room while the reserves finished the game. It was a bizarre scene.

Lost in the mess was an impressive performance by Hosea. He had 143 yards rushing on just 16 carries and showed an impressive shiftiness in the open field, much like his predecessor in the Cottonwood backfield, Isi Sofele.

Also playing well was quarterback Crosby Jensen. He passed for 213 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for another. His first TD pass came on a blown coverage where he found Jason Lundquist to open the scoring.

Jensen sneaked it in on fourth down midway through the second quarter to make it 14-0. He then handed it off late in the first half to Hosea to push it to 21-0 and the rout was on.

The Colts also allowed just 68 yards of offense to Pine View. The big black mark for the 2-1 Colts was the penalty yardage. Cottonwood committed 17 penalties for 179 yards. Pine View had 105 yards of penalties.