Hawks edge Spartans out of state play-offs

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

North Sanpete High went down to the Morgan Trojans in the 3-A football semi-finals on Saturday at Southern Utah University and lost by a score of 43-22. Juan Diego took on Juab and won 28-13 to set up the state 3A championship game at Weber State on Saturday with Morgan and Juan Diego facing off.
Juan Diego defeated Delta, a team that had to play and defeat Canyon View on Tuesday of last week to even make the playoffs. Morgan defeated Manti, Juab defeated Union and the Hawks defeated our Emery Spartans in Mt Pleasant by the score of 49-27.
Emery played a good first half of football as the score was tied at 14-14 going to the halftime locker room. Emery received the opening kickoff and marched 47 yards in nine plays and scored on an 8-yard run by Bryce Dugmore. An Ashton Dieli kickoff return to the Hawks 47-yard line set up the scoring drive. That was the only score of the first quarter by either team.
Emery had one other opportunity in that first quarter after Kyler Stilson recovered a Hawk fumble at the Emery 42-yard line but the Spartan drive stalled after a couple of missed catches on passes, one in the end zone.
After North Sanpete scored in the second quarter, the Spartans responded with a 65-yard drive, actually two runs that netted a yard and then a screen pass to the fullback Dieli that covered 64 yards and the score for the Spartans and Emery retook the lead. North Sanpete scored on their next drive to tie the score and that is the way the two teams went into the locker room.
In the second half, North Sanpete received the kickoff and the Hawks went 66 yards to retake the lead at 21-14. Emery fumbled the ball away on their next drive and the Hawks had it at the Emery 29 yard line from where they scored again in three plays.
Emery wasn’t through though and the Spartans went 72 yards in the next drive to score on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Zach Jorgensen to Austin Allred. Jorgensen completed four passes in this drive with three of those going to Allred for a total of 47 yards and one to Dieli for 18 yards. Allred also picked up 15 yards on the ground in this drive.
Emery’s Dieli kicked the perfect onside kick and Kobe Faimalo recovered the kick and Emery had the ball in great position at Hawk 48 yard line.
After picking up 10 yards on a run by Dugmore, Allred had gained around five yards on the next play when a hit knocked the ball loose and the Hawks recovered ending the drive.
Emery’s final score came in the closing minute of the game when Jorgensen connected on a pass to TJ Lacock that covered 20 yards. North Sanpete scored each of the five times they had the ball in the second half and racked up 300 yards of offense in doing so.
In this final game of the season for the Emery players, Allred led the way on defense with 11 tackles. Chase Jewkes had 8 tackles and Logan cox and Stilson each had 7 tackles. Triston Tuttle and Easton Gordon each had 6 tackles with Ty Mecham ending the game with 5.
For the season, Allred gained 1,162 yards on the ground in 153 carries and scored 14 touchdowns. Dugmore gained 802 yards on 139 carries and scored 12 touchdowns. Dieli rushed the ball 121 times for 648 yards and scored 5 touchdowns. Jorgensen completed 50 of 109 passes for 688 yards and 9 touchdowns with Kolton Butler catching 9 passes for 209 yards and 2 td’s and Allred catching 7 passes for 127 yards and 4 td’s. Ashton Dieli made 30 of 32 attempts on extra points, missing one in the first game and one in the final regular season game. Allred led the team with 97 tackles while Dugmore, Chase Jewkes and Stilson tied for second with 54 tackles each.
Allred finished fifth in 3-A rushing touchdowns and fourth in 3-A in rushing yards. He also finished 9th in tackles. Dugmore finished eighth in both rushing touchdowns and rushing yardage. Jorgensen finished sixth in passing touchdowns.