The Emery High football team played the whole game and escaped Salt Lake City with a hard-fought 28-21 victory over the host Judge Memorial Catholic High School in 3-A North region action on Sept. 14. Friday night saw two teams that were winless so far this season start the game knowing that one of them would leave with a W.
Emery scored first in the game and they scored last in the game and played well enough throughout the entire game to keep the Bulldogs at bay. Emery’s opening drive started at their 20-yard line and the Spartans scored on their 12th play of that drive, a 1-yard run by senior running back Rance Jensen. Senior Brock Winter kicked the extra-point and Emery led 7-0.
Runs by Jensen accounted for eight of those plays and 55 of the yards. Emery’s next score came on a Spartan punt return. Jaymes Bowman took the Bulldog punt off the ground on the first bounce, blew through the first wave of Bulldog defenders, weaved to his left and found some Spartan blockers and would score. Winter again added the extra point.
Emery’s next score came in the third quarter. Emery started a drive at their 35-yard line after the Bulldog kick-off went out of bounds. The Spartans took eight plays to cover that yardage and the score came as senior quarterback Kyson Stilson carried the ball into the endzone from the one-yard line. Jensen had a 22-yard run to get the ball to the one.
Again, Winter kicked the extra point. The ensuing Spartan kickoff was an onside kick by Winter and sophomore Treven Brazier was able to recover the kick and give the Spartans the ball inside Bulldog territory. Emery had to punt after failing to keep the drive alive.
Judge would end up tying the score at 21-21 as neither team wanted to lose this game. With time running out in regulation Emery started their final drive of regulation. Emery went offside on their first attempted play receiving a five-yard penalty then threw two incomplete passes. On third and 15, Stilson ran the ball gained 14 yards and then the Spartans picked up the first down on a run by Jensen.
With less than a minute on the game clock, Emery called a pass play and Stilson hit Bowman on the left side of the endzone and Bowman held on to the ball as he landed on his back. With the Winter kick Emery led 28-21. Emery kicked the kick-off out of bounds and Judge had enough time to attempt just a couple of long pass plays but neither came close to being complete as the Emery defenders had really good down field coverage and Emery left town with the win.
Rance Jensen led the Spartan effort as he picked up 128 yards on the ground on 27 carries and the one touchdown. Jaymes Bowman had the punt return for a touchdown, caught four passes for 45 yards and a touchdown and Bowman also ran the ball three times for 22 yards.
Bowman also was one of the leading tacklers in the game, especially early on. Kyson Stilson completed 9 of 16 passes.
Carbon Game.
For just the third time since these two schools began playing each other on the football field the Carbon Dinos were victorious when the final game buzzer went off.
Last Friday night Carbon scored 16 points and limited the Spartans to just 9 points defensively. Emery now leads the series 26-3. The last Carbon victory was 18 seasons ago.
Carbon scored first in the game as they made a 27-yard field goal in the first quarter and led 3-0 when that first period ended. In the second quarter an option play being ran by the Spartans went wrong as the ball was pitched by the Emery quarterback to the Spartan tailback, the pitch was deflected by the Dino defensive player and that player then picked it up and ran 39 yards into the endzone for the first touchdown of the game. The kick after was missed and Carbon led 9-0.
Emery started a drive at their 7-yard line and that drive ended at the Spartan 23-yard line with Emery’s Brock Winter making a 40-yard field goal. Emery trailed 9-3. As the next Emery series fizzled at the Spartan 29-yard line Winter came on to punt the ball away. The Spartan punt team failed to block all the Dino defensive players and the punt was blocked and the Dinos took over at the Emery 15-yard line and scored a couple of plays later to take the lead to 16-3.
Emery returned the Dino kickoff after that touchdown out to the Spartan 45-yard line and three plays and two penalties later the Spartans scored on a six yard pass play from Kyson Stilson to Jaymes Bowman. After a two-point pass attempt was deflected away the two teams went to halftime with Carbon leading 16-9. As you can see neither team scored in the second half.
Emery had their opportunities in this game. A Spartan touchdown was called back on a pass play because the one official said that an ineligible player was downfield. That call was questionable and film verified that the player in question was in the backfield.
Another Spartan pass was dropped in the endzone which would have changed the outcome. Emery had their opportunities but it was not to be. Emery had more yardage than the Dinos but the score favored the Dinos as they made the most of their opportunities.
Kyson Stilson completed 11 of 22 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown. Bowman caught five of those passes for 51 yards and a touchdown. Rance Jensen caught three passes for 49 yards and Seth Justice, Szion Gibson and Jeremy Brannon each caught one pass. Jensen led the way on the ground with 22 carries for 76 yards. Gibson gained 22 yards on four carries, Bowman 9 yards on two carries and Stilson lost 4 yards on three carries.
Defensively middle linebacker Daeden Behling led the way with 14 tackles while fellow middle linebacker Teagan Christman was in on 10 tackles. Defensive tackle Ashton Rowley also was in on 10 tackles and safety Bowman was in on 8 tackles. With 5 tackles each were Jensen, Jesse Barnett and Brannon. Brannon had an interception in the game as did Jordan Ekker for the Spartans.
Emery did a lot right in this game but two offensive miscues cost the Spartans in the end. Emery continues region action this week as they will travel to Morgan to face the Trojans in their final regular season road game. Morgan is ranked number one in 3-A by the Deseret News this week.
GALLERY: Emery football picks up win at Judge Memorial: loss at Carbon
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