Defense is key in win over Grantsville

By GARY ARRINGTON Sports Writer

After the Emery High football team defeated Grantsville by the score of 50-13 you would possibly assume that the conversation would be about the offensive stats put up by the Spartans but in this case the talk is about the defense.
For maybe the best time this season the Spartan defense came to play. They caused a fumble and then recovered it, they came away with an interception and then they recovered another fumble and returned it 30 yards or so to set the Spartan offense. Best of all though, there were 11 different Spartans credited with five tackles or more in the game, a first this season.
Led by Koby Butler at left defensive end with eight tackles, and Koby did cause a fumble in the second quarter that was recovered by Kyler Wakefield, the Emery defense allowed the Cowboy offense less than 200 yards in the game minus the final drive against the Spartan JV team.
Also with tackles in the game were Ashton Dieli, Bryce Dugmore, Logan Labrum and Triston Tuttle with seven tackles each. With six tackles were Easton Gordon, Kyler Stilson and Isaac Hardee. With five tackles were Austin Allred, Logan Cox and Chase Jewkes. This is a nice collection of defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs with stats.
Dieli intercepted a pass in the second quarter and ran down field with it from the Emery 35-yard line to the Grantsville 20-yard line. Kolton Butler recovered the other fumble and ran for some good yardage.
On the offensive side of the ball Austin Allred ran the ball just 11 times but gained 143 yards in those carries and is now over the 1,000 yard mark for the season with a regular season game to go. Allred rushed the ball for three touchdowns and is one of the leaders in the state in this category. His runs came in the second quarter and were actually consecutive touches of the ball by him as he scored on runs of 16 yards, 11 yards and 55 yards.
Allred also caught two passes from Emery quarterback Zach Jorgensen for 25 yards and 19 yards and both catches were for touchdowns. Allred also completed a pass to Kolton Butler that covered 55 yards to start the second quarter.
Emery scored once in the first quarter on a Jorgensen pass to lead 7-0 as Dieli added the extra point on a kick. Emery added three straight scores in the second quarter after two Cowboy turnovers and led 28-0. After Grantsville finally put together a drive late in the second quarter and scored Emery answered right back with a two-play drive that covered 59 yards and added a two-point conversion by Dieli and led 36-7 at the half.
On Grantsville’s first drive of the second half, Kolton recovered a fumble on the third play of the half and Emery scored on their first offensive play of the third quarter and Emery led 43-7 and basically the game was over at this point. Because of the “mercy rule” which says the clock just runs when a team gets ahead by 35 points in the second half of play, there is really no way for a team to come back from that deficit.
Emery added a final touchdown on a drive that began in the third period but ended in the final period. Easton Gordon, seeing some action at quarterback after having played corner all game long, scored on a 16-yard run and the Spartans led 50-7.
Emery finished the game with 327 yards of offense and seven touchdowns.
The Spartan defense gave the ball to the offense in great field position throughout the game which probably kept the yardage down. Dugmore ran the ball 10 times for 61 yards and scored the second touchdown of the game while Dieli ran the ball just 6 times and gained 15 yards as the Cowboy defense worked hard to take away the middle of the field.
With the win, Emery will be in the 3-A playoffs this season and won’t know their opening opponent until after the game this week. Emery will close out the regular season as they host the top team in 3-A North, Juan Diego on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m.