3A high school football: Soaring Eagle overwhelms Juab 56-0

DRAPER — The word domination is thrown around a lot in the sports world, but not always merited. Friday, however, the Juan Diego Soaring Eagle dominated the Juab Wasps in a 56-0 blowout.

Juan Diego set the tone of the game from the opening drive. The Wasps' first play was stopped at the line of scrimmage for no gain, after which quarterback Brock Orme was sacked on second down. An incompletion on third down led to a punting situation which was returned to the Juab 45.

On its first play from scrimmage, the Soaring Eagle showed the offensive dominance that would continue the entire evening. Cody Stevenson hit Keegan Anderson on a quick slant who broke several tackles and was eventually taken down after a gain of 37. Two plays later Stevenson rolled left on a throwing option and found Anderson wide open for an 8 yard touchdown.

After another stop, Juan Diego kept rolling exactly where it left off, getting to the Wasps' 6 in just three plays. Juab, not willing to go quietly, held strong. With four chances to score, the Soaring Eagle came up short and the Wasps' took over on their own 1-yard line.

"We got a little down at that point, but we needed to get right back at them and prove a point" commented Stevenson afterward. Stevenson ended 8 for 13 with 297 yard passing and 4 TDs.

Taking over on its own goal line, Juab wasn't able to get anything going on offense and was forced to punt from the two. A great return by Juan Diego to the five yard line set up a touchdown run by Lars Gunderson on the ensuing play. Gunderson tallied 81 yards rushing and reached paydirt three times.

The Wasps were forced to go three and out on its first four possessions for a total of negative eight yards.

Soaring Eagle head coach John Colosimo was very pleased with this effort. "The defense played really well today. I've seen their quarterback (Orme) pick teams apart before, but we were able to stop them."

In the second quarter, Juan Diego added three touchdowns to take a 35-0 lead into the half. Having all the momentum in its favor, the Soaring Eagle continued the assault with Frankie Sutera returning the opening kickoff 81 yards to extend the lead to 42.

Juab never gave up and had several sparks. The Wasps' J.B. Ellison retuned the following kickoff to the 38, giving good field position and hope that his team would at least be able to light the scoreboard once. Once again, however, Juan Diego's defense proved too big and too fast, forcing another punt after pushing Juab back a yard on its possession, and the trend continued throughout the remainder of the game.

With the win, Juan Diego advances to the second round of the 3A playoffs. The Soaring Eagle will be high on confidence as it takes on the Cedar City Redmen.