5A high school football: Second-half outburst propels Bingham over Syracuse

A special teams miracle spurred a second-half onslaught, as the Bingham Miners came alive in the third quarter to power past the Syracuse Titans 38-3 on Friday.

At the end of a tense first half, the Titans found themselves on their own five-yard line after recovering a fumble by Miners quarterback Ty Hannay. With 41 seconds remaining, the Titans were content to go to the locker room at halftime with an unexpected 3-3 tie, so they kneeled down on the ball on their first play.

Bingham coach Dave Peck decided to burn the Miners' two timeouts, in hopes of forcing the Titans into a fourth-down mistake or at least a punt.

"We wanted to see if we had time for a chance to go for a block, or we fair catch their punt and possibly get three points from a free kick," Peck said. "Either way, we were just trying to make something happen."

Good decision.

With both the play- and game-clocks running down, a bad snap nearly sailed over the head of Syracuse punter Josh Kealamakia. Bingham's Jake Bright was there to block the delayed kick, which floated directly into the arms of a waiting Kamron Coon for a touchdown. With the clock on zeroes, Braeden Loveless kicked the extra point for a 10-3 lead.

The play spurred the top-ranked Miners, who were faced with a bigger challenge than most expected from the upstart Titans. The Miners' offense exploded afterward, pushing the game out of reach.

Bingham running back Harvey Langi finished with 159 yards on 21 carries, including a 42-yard dash for a score that got things started for Bingham in the third quarter.

The disheveled Syracuse offense threw three incompletions, and Bingham capitalized with several tough runs by Langi, capped by a long quarterback draw by Stefan Cantwell for a touchdown. Minutes later, Cantwell scored again, this time on a sneak after Langi brought the ball to the goal line.

When Travis McRae returned an interception 32 yards for yet another Miner score, it capped a 28-point quarter. Bingham piled up some 178 yards of total offense in the quarter, compared to 159 in the entire first half.

Up 38-3, the clock ran continuously in the second half and Bingham was able to give its backups quality playing time.

The final score was a drastic departure from the first half, which saw the opportunistic Titans match Bingham step-for-step on both sides of the ball. Linebacker Josh Gooch led a defensive effort that stymied the Miners' running game and forced two turnovers, including a fumble by Langi into the end zone for a touchback during the first quarter.

Despite the lopsided final score, Peck was impressed with the Titans.

"That's as sound a team as we played all year," Peck said. "My hat's off to them."

In the end, though, it was the Miners' defense which was able to sustain its effort throughout the game, limiting the Titans to just 139 yards total offense, a large portion of which came late in the game.