The 2011 football season came to an end for the Emery High Spartans last Friday night at the hands of the Manti Templars in Manti by the score of 34-6. In a rematch of game three of this season, the two teams played a game almost like the first.
Emery had turnovers, Manti capitalized; Emery gained yardage, Manti won. Two games, similar results. Eerie. One would think that Halloween was close.
In the first match up, Emery had six turnovers while this time the Spartans only had five. In no other game this season did Emery have as much trouble holding on to the ball. In both games a bad snap on a punt attempt led directly to a Templar touchdown while Emery had no such problem in any other game. Manti outgained Emery by less than 100 yards of total offense, just like last game. Déjà vu. Or as Yogi Berra once said, “Déjà vu all over again.”
Emery’s leading rusher on the season, junior Cory Cox, went down with a knee injury on the first offensive play of the night for the Spartans. Cory never returned to the game. Cox also started on defense at middle linebacker for the Spartans.
Emery’s lone score of the night came on a 28 yard run by sophomore Dominic Rondinelli late in the first half of play.
Emery finished the season with a record of 6-5 playing in the tough northern division of 2-A football. In next week’s 2-A semifinals, it will be three division teams in Manti, Millard and South Summit and one south division team in San Juan. Manti, the north region winner, is a favorite to win it all because of their size and athleticism.
Rondinelli led the way for Emery in the game with 120 yards of 16 carries and the lone touchdown. Sophomore Marco Mota finished with 26 yards on six carries while senior Brett Sorensen finished with 27 yards on nine carries. Cox picked up six yards on his lone carry of the game.
Emery finished with 216 yards of total offense while Manti finished with 309 yards.
On defense in this game, Dyer led the way with 12 tackles with Brett Sorensen having eight tackles. Geren Payne and Jordan Cox each finished with seven tackles in the game.
For the season, Cox was the leading rusher with 812 yards and a 5.64 yards per carry average. Cox finished as the fifth leading rusher in 2-A. Rondinelli finished second for Emery with 644 yards rushing and a per carry average of 6.24 yards. Senior Jesse Winn had the highest per carry average at 7.39 and finished the season with 562 yards before he was injured. Winn was the third leading rusher in 2-A football at the time of his injury.
Also rushing the ball for Emery this season were Marco Mota with 386 yards and a 6.32 average. Nathan Thompson carried the ball for 161 yards and a 5.96 average, Brett Sorensen had 147 yards and a 4.80 average and David Dyer carried the ball for 80 yards with an 8.00 average.
Emery finished the season with just more than 2,800 yards of rushing, an average of 255 yards a game. Winn had eight touchdowns before his season ended in injurys and was also the third leading scorer in 2-A. Cox and Mota each scored five times, Rondinelli scored four times and Dyer had three touchdowns.
Dyer finished as the leading pass receiver with 12 catches for 253 yards and five touchdowns.
Sophomore Bailey Faimalo finished the season with eight interceptions. Faimalo is leading 2-A today and is second in the state in any classification.
This season saw the Spartans play good football most times, excellent football sometimes and every once in a while saw the Spartans play young football. With so many underclassman playing a key role in the just concluded season, it is reasonable to expect good things next season if the players will just do the necessary things during the off-season to prepare.
Emery football finishes the season against the Templars
"Marco Mota runs the ball for Emery."