The final score does not accurately reflect the effort displayed by the Emery High football team in their region opener at Morgan last Friday night. Morgan High defeated Emery 35-0 in a game that actually could have ended 14-7.
Morgan High is the best team that the Spartans have faced this season and the inexperienced Emery team gave the Trojans all they wanted in their homecoming game of the season. Emery gave up a last second touchdown in both the second and fourth quarters and an additional fourth quarter touchdown after the Spartans had to punt from their own 14-yard line.
Emery on offense had a drive stall out at the Morgan 6-yard line in the second half and Emery ended two other drives inside the Morgan 30-yard line, one by a fumble and one by a pair of sacks of the quarterback.
Emery’s offense was quarterbacked by sophomore Zach Jorgensen. Starting his first game of his career after an injury to Tai Justice, Jorgensen completed nine of 20 pass attempts for 108 yards. He threw no interceptions and completed passes to four different receivers. Zach also ran the ball seven times for a minus 17 yards.
Senior fullback Matt Mecham caught four of those passes for a total of 25 yards. Sophomore receiver Kolton Butler caught two passes for 41 yards and junior running back Tyler Olsen caught two passes for 29 yards. Junior receiver TJ Lacock caught the other pass for 11 yards.
Olsen led the way on the ground with 50 yards on 11 carries while Mecham gained 37 yards on eight carries. Junior running back Bryce Dugmore played in his first game of the season after having had surgery over the summer on a foot and Dugmore gained 18 yards on three carries. Sophomore Ashton Dieli gained 13 yards on 5 carries.
Matt Mecham led the defensive effort as he had a team best 23 tackles from his linebacker position. Dugmore started at cornerback for Emery and recorded 9 tackles. Safety Dieli and linebacker Mo Derrick each had 7 tackles in the game. Cornerback Logan Cox and linebacker Olsen each had 6 tackles on the night.
This week Emery will host the Union Cougars in their homecoming game on Friday night. Union is 4-1 on the season after starting the season by winning their first four games and then losing last week at Judge Memorial in Salt Lake City by the score of 41-14. Judge is the defending 3-A state champion and is the favorite to win it again this season. Morgan, Manti and Juab are the other favorites.
Emery football drops game to Morgan on the road
"In his first return to Emery football after an injury, Bryce Dugmore catches a touchdown pass in junior varsity action."