Spartan football season ends in Hurricane

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports writer

The 2010 football season came to a close for the Emery High Spartans with a 42-13 loss on Nov. 5 against the Hurricane Tigers in Hurricane. Hurricane controlled the game both offensively and defensively from the opening kickoff.
With the win, Hurricane will now travel to the University of Utah Rice-Eccles Stadium this Friday to play a semi-final game against the Delta Rabbits. After an 0-4 start, Delta has now won eight straight football games including a 27-7 victory over the Desert Hills Thunder. Delta and Hurricane met in week two of this season with the Tigers winning 20-8.
In other action Juan Diego continued their winning ways with a 27-12 win over region 12 member Juab High. In a tougher than expected win; Juab stayed with the highly ranked Juan Diego team most of the game.
The other game was Judge Memorial’s one-point win over Wasatch in Heber City. Judge won 35-34 for their second straight upset in the 3-A playoffs. Last week, Judge stunned Cedar in Cedar City. Judge was the number four seed out of their region and actually had to play a play-in game even to make the tournament and now they have won two in a row. Judge faced Juan Diego and Juan Diego won 13-7. Juan Diego defeated Judge in the season 21-7.
Against Emery, Hurricane went 70 yards in their opening offensive series to score and really never looked back from there. The Tigers amassed 378 yards of total offense and scored six of the first seven times they had the ball. Hurricane averaged, according to the program, about 30 pounds per man heavier than Emery and it showed.
Emery was able to have some success on offense as they scored twice and picked up yardage but were no match against the much bigger school. Taylor Cox scored on a 23-yard run and Colton Fasselin scored on a 5-yard run for the highlights of the game. Fasselin, Nathan Mecham and Clay Collard finished the game as the leading tacklers for Emery.
Emery finished the season with a 7-5 record and felt that they could play with anybody in any 3-A football except probably the Tigers. Juan Diego has won the last two championships by defeating the Hurricane Tigers both times. The Utah High School Activities Association, the governing body of high school sports in Utah, announced the proposed 2011 school year realignments for the high schools in Utah. After more than 20 years as a 3-A school, Emery will move back to 2-A status next season. Also returning to the 2-A ranks will be Manti, ALA and Richfield. Dropping to 3-A next season will be Orem, Spanish Fork, Payson and Tooele.
Hurricane continued to roll with a 31-point win over Delta, 38-7. Juan Diego defeated Judge in overtime in a boring game 13-7. Emery only lost by 29 points to the Tigers. The 3A state champion is again Juan Diego as they defeated Hurricane 10-7 at Rice Eccles stadium this weekend.