Emery Spartan Junior Varsity football defeats Morgan

By Gary Arrington
Sports Writer

Emery football’s bright spot last week was the junior varsity win against Morgan at home. They defeated the Trojans 36-13. This was a much needed boost as the Spartan varsity team would travel to Morgan to play the varsity Trojans who have been ranked number one all season.
In their final home game of the season the Emery High freshman/sophomore football team defeated the Morgan High freshman/sophomore team by the score of 34-13. With the win the Emery team remains undefeated for the season. Emery broke open the close game in the second half to easily defeat their region opponent. The Spartan freshman/sophomore team and the Spartan JV team will travel this week to Union on Thursday to face the Cougars. The JV game will depend on having enough healthy bodies to play the game just like last week did when the JV game had to be canceled.
Going into last week’s football game the Emery High football team knew that Morgan was the number one ranked team in 3-A football for a reason.
Morgan is a school that is nearing double the studentbody that Emery High has and the Trojans have played good football for a number of years.
Emery went into the game minus some key players due to injuries throughout the season and from last week’s game but the team was still ready for the challenge. Despite being willing though the Spartans could not keep up with the Trojans size and lost this region contest 36-0.
Morgan scored first in the game. On a fourth down play the Trojans ran a pass play and unfortunately for Emery it was to the receiver whose defender had slipped to the ground and just like that Emery was down 8-0 after the two-point play. Emery had punted on fourth down on their first two possessions of the game and had forced a missed field goal attempt by the Morgan team on their second possession as the team was playing well at the time. The first quarter expired midway through Emery’s third possession of the game with the Spartans in the midst of a nine-play drive. Emery got inside the Trojan ten-yard line before a sack of the Spartan quarterback resulted in a loss of yardage and then the ensuing Spartan field goal was blocked and Emery was denied a golden scoring opportunity.
Morgan scored on their next possession and then the Spartan quarterback through an interception that was returned for another Trojan score and just like that Emery was behind by the score of 22-0. Emery punted on each of their next two possessions and Morgan scored on each of their next two possessions and Emery trailed at the half 36-0, which was the final score of the game.
Despite playing a lot of underclassmen in the game as this Emery team only has five seniors and 11 juniors on it, Emery held the Trojans to just eight points through the first, third and fourth quarters and four minutes of the second quarter but that other eight minutes of the second quarter was deadly for Emery.
Senior quarterback Kyson Stilson completed his first eight passes of the game and finished the night nineteen for twenty-seven for 151 yards. He threw two interceptions in the game. Emery had negative rushing yardage in the game. Stilson completed five passes to Jaymes Bowman in the game for 76 yards. Bowman left the game with an injury. Rance Jensen also caught five passes for 40 yards. Defensively Emery was led in tackles by sophomore Riggs Griffin with ten tackles and junior Teagan Christman and sophomore Tristan Leroy with 7 tackles each. Junior Szion Gibson finished with 6 tackles and also left the game with an injury.
This week the Spartans return home for their homecoming game and with face region rival Union in a game Friday night at the Spartan field in Castle Dale.
Emery will complete their regular season the following week with another home game, this one with the number two ranked Grantsville Cowboys.