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Show B1 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, October 28, 2008 SPORTS Season Extension Spartans Play their Best Game of the Season to Qualify for State C. Josie Luke The Spartan Football team played perhaps their best game of the season to qualify for the state football championships. Emery began their last home game of the season with confidence and energy and though the game was interrupted by a 45 minute blackout, the Spartans outplayed the Skyhawks throughout the contest. Emery jumped out on top in the first quarter with two straight passes to Colby Snow, leading quickly to a 35-yard touchdown run by Dalton Judd. The defense then forced the Skyhawks to punt on their first possession, and Emery’s offense marched down the field to the one yard line. After a five yard penalty on the Spartans, both teams got set to run the next play and the lights went out. With no light to play by, both teams and many fans left the field to wait for the power to be restored. Fortyfive minutes later, the score board flicked on, followed by the lights, and the teams returned to finish the game. Though the interruption may have served to cool many teams, the Spartans seemed unfazed. “We had so much momentum, we just seemed to keep going after we came back,” said Coach Jimmy Jones. On their first play after returning, Gatlan Huntington handed the ball to Snow, who ran it into the end zone for the Spartan’s second touchdown. Though they missed the extra point attempt, the Spartans were out to a 13 point lead before the end of the first quarter. The Skyhawks scored on their next drive, but Snow again eluded their defense for a 15-yard touchdown. After a second touchdown by Snow put the Spartans up 25-7, tempers flared as time ran out in the second quarter, resulting in two Salem Hills’ players being thrown out of the game. The Spartan’s momentum was uninterrupted in the third quarter. JT Noyes made sure of that by intercepting a pass from the Skyhawks’ quarterback on the first drive. Then Tanner Procarione, who had missed the last game with an Achilles injury, caught a pass from a scrambling Huntington and the Spartans converted a two-point conversion to go up 33-7. Salem Hills attempted to mount a comeback, scoring two unanswered touchdowns and two two-point conversions to draw within 13, but that was as close as they would get. Emery added two more touchdowns in the game, a 20-yard run by Chance Ariotti and a 3-yard run by Morgan Burr, to put the Skyhawks away, 46-20. Salem Hills’ weak defense provided the Spartans with the perfect opportunity to run their offense the way they would have liked to throughout the season, resulting in 549 yards of total offense. Their rushing offense was especially potent. Emery had two players who ran for over 100 yards in the game: Snow, with 157 and Ariotti, with 103. Burr added 65 yards, Judd had 42, Noyes had 49 and Huntington had 24. Coach Jones also gave credit to his offensive line for the rushing total. “I thought our running backs and our line did a good job. You play against Delta and Juan Diego and they’re so good up front that we can’t do some of the things we want to so,” he explained. “Last night we were a little stronger and played hard to do some things we had wanted to do the whole season.” Though the defense did give up 20 points, they forced two turnovers. Derrick Allred led the defense in tackles with 15, followed by Ariotti with 12 and Snow with 9. Jones was pleased with the Spartans overall effort in the game and felt it was a fitting end to their regular season. “I thought we played really well,” he commented. “It was a good way for our seniors to go out at home.” The Spartans will face Park City in the first round of state tournament. Though Park City is ranked first in their region, they have a 5-4 record, but Jones said the record is deceiving. He revealed that they were hit with the “injury bug” in the middle of the season and lost three games, but they are healthy now and will be a tough opponent for the Spartans. The game will be played at Park City on Friday at 4 p.m. The San Rafael Bulldogs placed second in the varsity tournament. The Girl’s Cross Country team. Girl’s Cross Country Competes at State After the miraculous efforts of the Emery Girl’s Cross Country team to make it to the state tournament, they were brought back down to earth by the class of teams who competed with them there, finishing last of 15 teams. But the girls showed their metal by finishing the race even though according to their coach, they were quite nervous. “I think the girls did really well,” said Coach Kristy Guymon. “All of them finished the race, even though some of them got really nervous. So, we were really quite proud of them.” Senior Lacey Montgomery again led her team, finishing 16th. Guymon revealed she “had a lot riding on the race,” with college coaches watching her, but though she was under such pressure, she ran one of her best times of the year. Guymon was proud of the way the team performed, especially in qualifying for the state event. “It really was a great year,” she concluded. She also explained that Montgomery was the only senior on the Photo by C. Josie Luke Colby Snow dodges past Salem Hills defenders in the Spartan’s final home game. team, so next year the team will retain all of the other runners. Lacey Montgomery runs in the state competition. Junior High Volleyball Tournament It was a busy week for the area Junior High Volleyball teams with a varsity tournament held at Canyon View Junior High on Oct. 21 and junior varsity tournament held Oct. 23 at Helper Junior High. Mont Harmon placed first in varsity competition with a hard fought win over San Rafael. San Rafael placed second in this tournament and was undefeated until the finals. Coach Hales said, “The team played hard but came up short. They beat us twice but we played extremely well. We ran out of gas because we didn’t have substitutes for the players.” Canyon View came in fourth at the tournament and Coach Bill Wright said his team, “worked hard and played very well as a team even though the results didn’t show it. They are a great group of players,” he said. Helper Junior High placed third in tournament competition. Helper and Mont Harmon coaches were unavailable for comment. In Junior Varsity tournament play, Canyon View placed first in a hard fought battle over Pinnacle Academy. Coach Wright said, “It took 22 games to come out on top and it was a tough competition”. Pinnacle ended up in 2nd place with San Rafael 3rd, Mont Harmon, 4th and Helper, 5th. The Canyon View Cougars guard the net. Photos by Kathy Ockey |