5A high school football: Six interceptions propel Lone Peak over West Jordan

HIGHLAND — Despite giving up the shutout with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game, the Lone Peak team had plenty to be proud of on the defensive end as they won their first round playoff game against West Jordan 27-6 on Friday night.

"Our defense just played great. I lost track of the interceptions after three or four. We knew the ball was going to fly and we did a good job of closing and getting to it," said Lone Peak coach Tony McGeary after his team picked the Jaguars a total of six times in the contest.

And that solid rough and tumble defense set up the first Lone Peak touchdown of the game as the Knights picked up their first interception on the West Jordan four-yard-line. That pick quickly led to the 75-yard touchdown pass from Tannon Pedersen to Ryan Savage for his first of two scores in the contest.

That one score, along with the first extra point kick by Ryne MacPherson, turned out to be all the Knights really needed for the victory. But they didn't stop there.

Another touchdown midway through the first quarter put them well on their way to the first-round victory. The second long bomb to the end zone left Pedersen's hand and found its mark with Eric Pollard, who then took off with the ball and finished in the West Jordan end zone for the Knight's second score and a 14-0 lead.

"Offensively we really clicked when we came out of the gate in the first half. And we played fairly decently in the second half, but just one or two things went wrong, and offensively we've got to improve on those things," said McGeary, whose team is now looking forward to traveling to Hunter to play the Wolverines in the 5A quarterfinals.

The Knights managed one more touchdown in the contest when Pedersen found Savage with a six-yard pass into the end zone with just less than four minutes to go in the first half.

The Lone Peak defense was led by heads-up plays from Kyle Hannemann, Kyson Flake, Kolton Palmer and Dax Eisinger, but it was Hannemann who turned the most heads.

"Hannemann is a heady player with a lot of speed. He covers well and is a great leader for us out there," said McGeary, who will be looking to spread the offense to include Hannemann a little more next week.

MacPherson added a pair of field goals of 34 and 39 yards to the scoring for the Knights before West Jordan finally found its way past the goal line with 30 seconds remaining in what was a shutout for the Knights of the high-octane Jaguar offense.

West Jordan quarterback Adam Boelter found CJ O'Neal with a nine-yard touchdown pass to the back of the end zone to get rid of the goose egg on the Jaguar side of the scoreboard.