The Emery High football team played their final preseason game last week as they hosted the Richfield Wildcats. Richfield won the game 41-14 with a strong second-half effort.
Emery and Richfield played evenly through the first half of play but the final play of the half gave the Wildcats the lead and the Spartans never recovered from that play.
With the score tied 14-14, Richfield had the ball at the Emery 47-yard line with just three seconds left on the clock. The Wildcat quarterback, a big guy at around 6’5″, threw the ball deep into the end zone. The Emery defender stepped up, deflected the pass but unfortunately for Emery it went right into the hands of a Richfield player lying on the ground. Touchdown Richfield.
Emery scored twice in the first half, once on a 1-yard run by fullback Matt Mecham and once on a 14-yard run by wingback Ashton Dieli. On the first score, Emery had recovered a Richfield fumble at the 2-yard line and Mecham scored on the third play of that drive. Richfield led 7-6 after the first quarter after Emery missed the point after kick.
Emery’s second score came in the second quarter on their final drive of the half. After returning a punt to the Emery 40-yard line, the Spartans marched 60 yards on four plays to score for the second time. Dieli carried the ball for 34 yards and then for 5 yards, Mecham then picked up a first down with a 7-yard run followed be Dieli scoring on a 14-yard run. Emery went for two after the score and picked it up on a pass from Zach Jorgensen to Mecham. Sophomore Jorgensen was in the game at quarterback for Tai Justice who went out of the game after the first play with an injury.
After picking up 156 yards in the first half, Emery only gained 85 yards in the second half as three turnovers hurt the Emery offense. Richfield on the other hand, picked up 226 yards as they scored three more times after long drives.
Dieli led the Spartan offense with 14 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown while Mecham gained 32 yards on 9 carries and scored once and Tyler Olsen gained 33 yards on 7 carries. Jorgensen completed three passes for 51 yards with all three passes being caught by Olsen.
Mecham was the leading tackler with ten tackles followed by Mo Derrick with 9 tackles. Abram Hadfield had 8 tackles while Evan Swenson and Dieli each had 6. Hadfield and Olsen each recovered a Wildcat fumble.
Emery will begin region play this week as they travel to Morgan for a Friday night game. The Trojans are perennially a top team in the 3-A ranks.
Emery Spartans drop game to Richfield Wildcats at home
"Matt Mecham jumps for the pass from Zach Jorgensen."