HURRICANE — Morgan High School head football coach Kovi Christiansen said he felt like his team was still in its 3A quarterfinal game against Hurricane going into the locker room down 13-3 at the half.

That changed after the first two plays of the second half.

Hurricane senior running back Jacob Pugh romped for 40 yards on the first play from scrimmage after the intermission and fellow senior running back Zach Sorensen ran 40 more yards into the end zone the next play to give the Tigers a 20-3 advantage on their way to a 41-9 victory.

Christiansen admitted those two plays deflated his team. After being happy with the Trojans' effort in the first half, he said he was disappointed with their play in the second half.

Hurricane head coach Chris Homer said Pugh's big run to begin the third quarter was "pivotal."

"Our sideline was energized by that," he said. "We rolled after that."

"That was huge," Sorensen added about the two key runs. "We knew that the team that made the biggest play first would win the game. We didn't give them any momentum."

Hurricane captured the momentum at the beginning of the first half as well. Junior running back Jarom Healy trotted 10 yards for a touchdown with 8:52 to go in the first quarter soon after the Tigers recovered a Morgan fumble. Healy also reached the end zone right before halftime.

In the second half, Hurricane rattled off three more touchdown runs after Sorensen's score, two by Diamonte Hubbard and one by Pugh, to build a 41-3 lead before Morgan finally found the end zone with a Jordan Wamsley 25-yard touchdown reception from Colby Skinner with 5:16 remaining in the game.

In addition to its several breakout runs, Homer was pleased with both his defensive and offensive lines, who he said controlled the line of scrimmage.

"It was a full team effort — the players, the coaches, and the managers," Homer added. "Everyone did a great job."

Christiansen said one thing his squad had going against it from the very beginning was being forced to play its third-string quarterback. The Trojans' first- and second-string signal callers were out with injuries.

"We were limited with what we could do," he said.

Despite the loss, Christiansen said he still feels good about this season because the four teams that handed the Trojans their losses are playing in the state semifinals.

The victory over Morgan punched Hurricane's second straight ticket to the state semifinals next week against Park City, a team the Tigers beat 31-0 last season. According to Homer, the Miners are a different team this year, will be a great matchup, and might be out for revenge after the lopsided loss to his team last season.

Sorensen said Park City is "tearing it up this year" and has the same style of offense as Hurricane, which will make the game against the Miners challenging.