High school football: Pleasant Grove won the battle of undefeated teams

PLEASANT GROVE — The Pleasant Grove Vikings had to know things were going their way on their second possession of the game against undefeated West Jordan when Jeff Harris broke free on an 89-yard run. He fumbled the ball on about the 15-yard line, but he recovered it on the one as it bounced toward the end zone. On the next play Jordan Hymas, running up the middle, fumbled the ball into the end zone, where Austin Heder recovered it for the touchdown, giving Pleasant Grove an early lead.

That was the kind of night it was for Pleasant Grove, which took advantage of every opportunity and came away with a 43-14 win over West Jordan Friday night.

"We did have a break or two," said Pleasant Grove coach Dale Sampson. "But we put ourselves in some positions and some good things happened. We felt going into this week that we couldn't pick a better bye week opponent. We have nothing but respect for them."

The Vikings scored on their first four possessions of the game and when they finally had to punt with just under two minutes to play in the opening half, the Jaguars fumbled the ball. Joe Kruger recovered the fumble on the seven and Dallas Lloyd connected with DJ Doman on the next play for one of his four touchdown passes on the night. That score put the Vikings ahead 33-7 at halftime.

"I don't know when he's (Lloyd) more of a threat," said Sampson. "When he's throwing or when he decides to tuck it and run and get that first down. Sometimes he keeps it a little long, but its been a great experience to coach him. Believe it or not, he's a humble kid and works hard."

Despite only putting 14 points on the board, West Jordan's Adam Boelter had an excellent offensive performance. He connected on 30-of-47 passes for 346 yards and one touchdown. He did suffer two interceptions, however.

"They do have a pretty good offense," said Sampson. "That was a key game for us to prepare for our region run."

Lloyd finished the game with 257 yards passing and connected on 10-of-16 passes. He also ran for a touchdown.

Once the Vikings went up 12-0, the Jaguars responded with a 13-play drive that covered 52 yards. The key play was a fourth down roughing the passer penalty on the Vikings that gave the Jaguars a first down. Andrew Gardner pushed it in from the one to pull the Jaguars within a touchdown at 12-7.