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Show Cyan Magenta Yellow Black Wednesday, October 5, 2005 A9 Sanpete Messenger/Gunnison Valley Editionr Mind games Our minds are funny things. Most of us probably can’t levitate a lamp or move a vase of flowers simply by thinking about it, but when we set our minds to it, we can easily set ourselves up for disappointment or failure. For example, I was golfing the other day when I struck a huge tee-shot. The ball was long and straight down the middle. As I approached my ball perched up in the fairway, I was thinking of how I wanted to make something good out of the drive. I was concentrating on everything I knew I needed to do: Keep my head down and left arm straight, rotate my hips and wrists through the ball, follow through. I knew I had the potential to hit the ball well—after all I had just crushed this drive. All I needed to do was avoid making a mistake. I addressed the ball and started my downswing, concentrating on not making a mistake. And then I watched incredulously as my ball dribbled 10 yards down the fairway—which was 40 yards shorter than my divot. Let’s take another example: Last Friday’s Manti/Gunnison football game. The Bulldogs were 6-0 going into the game, had shutout opponents in their previous two games and had beaten every team they weren’t supposed to. And anyone who has watched this year’s Gunnison team play knows the team that showed up Friday was not the team that took the field on any previous Friday. Gunnison head coach Rhett Jackson told me during the game, “Manti’s in our head, plain and simple.” Gunnison quarterback Ryan Frandsen said “We wanted not to make mistakes so bad that we did.” So the real story of the game had less to do with the 2005 Manti Templar football team playing against the 2005 Gunnison Bulldog football team, and more to do with Manti’s 15-year domination of Gunnison on the gridiron. The team itself was a bigger barrier to a Bulldog win than the Manti Templars. And before any Manti fans say, “That’s just an excuse,” look closely at Manti’s history and you’ll see the same thing. Former Manti High School football coach Brennan Jackson said that when he walked on the scene 12 years ago, the Templars couldn’t buy a win against Grantsville—a team that had whooped Manti year-in-and-year-out for nearly a decade. Brennan Jackson said that the only reason the boys boarded the bus for Grantsville was the traditional stop at Sizzler. Brennan Jackson said that even when the Templars were up by 14 against Grantsville in 1994, the Templar kids were saying, “This shouldn’t be happening.” Suddenly, says Jackson, the switch was flipped and Grantsville scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and only a heroic play by Alex Cox during Grantsville’s two-point conversion saved the Manti win. “Every single game that’s won, is won before the kick-off,” said Brennan Jackson, “A rich tradition in winning really makes a difference.” The positive thing for Gunnison is that the kids are overcoming the past. Brennan Jackson said that teams developing a winning tradition invariably go through a series of steps before they can overcome a history of losses to a certain team. The first step, is, of course, developing a mindset through repetitive performances that the opponent cannot be overcome. That creates a “not a chance” mentality when facing the opponent. Gunnison has moved on from that and knows it has a genuine shot at beating or at least putting up a good fight against Manti. However, because of the past, Gunnison feels it needs to be perfect, which creates a “we’ve-got-a-chance-as-long-as-we-don’tmake-mistakes” mentality. Ironically, that mentality makes a team prone to making mistakes. Brennan Jackson says the problem is that the kids focus too much on what they don’t want to do instead of what they should do. The next step, and potentially the hardest, is developing a “Come and-stop-us” mentality. Gunnison is already on a good road to developing that attitude. In 16 years of high school football, the Bulldogs have won more games than Manti, Juab or Kanab won in their first 16 years. Also, it took the Templars 30 years to vie for the state championship. So give the Bulldogs some time. Remember, there was a time when the highlight of Manti football trips to Grantsville was allyou-can-eat shrimp. When you’re just one of five talented running backs, you’re not going rack up a whole lot of yards. And in the case of Manti Templar Jace Moore, that holds true. In Manti’s game against Gunnison last Friday, Moore produced 60 yards but it was what he did with those yards that counted. With only 11 touches, Moore led all scorers with three touchdowns. Jace Moore SEAN HALES / MESSENGER PHOTO Templar Dexter Rowley finds the hole created by his teammates during Manti’s 56-32 victory over Gunnison. Manti’s domination of the line of scrimmage was a key element to their win. Bulldogs toppled by Templars Special teams, offensive line key factors in 56-32 Manti win By Sean Hales Associate editor GUNNISON—In a game that should have featured the Gunnison Bulldogs’ strong rushing defense against an effective Manti Templars’ running attack, it was special teams that made the difference in Manti’s 56-32 win over Gunnison last Friday. A 90-yard kick return for a score by Templar Brandon Puett put the Templars up by 15, 21-6 late in the first quarter. “I think that took Gunnison out of what they wanted to do,” Manti head coach Cole Meacham said. Then, midway through the second quarter, Manti blocked a Gunnison punt deep in Bulldog territory, which Templar Jace Moore turned into a score on the next play. Manti blocked another punt early in the third quarter, this one also deep in Gunnison territory. Five plays later, Justin Wayman scampered in from 6-yards out to give Manti an insurmountable 4212 lead. “We put in more time on special teams this year than we have in previous years,” Meacham said. For the Bulldogs, “You can’t give a good team three easy scores,” Gunnison head coach Rhett Jackson said. “You take away those three touchdowns and it’s anybody’s game.” Of course, there’s no guarantee Manti wouldn’t have turned those punts into scores even if Gunnison had gotten them off. Out of 12 offensive possessions, the Templars turned eight of them into scores, and every Manti possession in the first half found the end zone. “We weren’t as mentally sharp,” Jackson said about Gunnison’s defense, and continued that on several occasions his team failed to even line up correctly to Manti’s offense. The Templars’ offensive line dominated the Bulldogs and opened holes that helped the speedy Manti running backs produce over 320 rushing yards for the game. During Manti’s first possession, the Templars marched 75yards down the field for a score in five plays, recording three first downs and a score by Chase Pili. “Sometimes we didn’t get a helmet on them until the third level,” Jackson said. “The line of scrimmage was theirs.” Gunnison’s defense improved a little in the second half, and on the second blocked punt, which gave Manti the ball on Gunnison’s 15-yard line, it took the Templars five plays and a third-down conversion to get the ball into the end zone. However, the Bulldog offense, which has struggled at times this season, produced 355 yards and 32 points. “Anytime you can put 32 points on the board … I’m not faulting the offense,” Jackson said. The Bulldogs made a run offensively in the third quarter with two consecutive touchdowns off a 40-yard pass reception by Joey Crane and a 35-yard run by Ben Dalley. The Bulldogs also made a defensive stand in that quarter, forcing a Templar punt and forcing and recovering a fumble. Ultimately, however, Gunnison’s biggest opponents on the field last week were themselves. “We were too uptight in the locker room,” Gunnison quarterback Ryan Frandsen said. “We wanted to not make mistakes so bad, that we did [make mistakes]. We needed to just come out and (See “Toppled” on A10) Hawks run over Soaring Eagle By Doug Johnson Staff writer MT. PLEASANT—It figured to be a fierce contest: claw to talon. The week before, the raptors of Region 8 had feasted: the Soaring Eagle slaughtering Emery 626 while the Hawks were disemboweling Granite 59-13. Both were 1-0 in league play and knew that the winner would have the advantage in hosting a first-round playoff game and perhaps the region title. Bring this ad into Roto-Lube for $10 off transmission flush and $5 off fuel injection cleaning Nominate your favorite athlete! Across from Wal-Mart in EPHRAIM Roto-Lube • Oil, Brakes, Rotations-MORE M-F 8-6/Sat. 8-4 • 727 N 50 E • Ephraim • 283-5500 But in the end it was a steady, consistent running game along with a superb game plan and execution on defense that lead North Sanpete to a surprisingly easy 39-17 homecoming win over Juan Diego. After North Sanpete opened the game with a workmanlike drive—running the ball 13 times for 76 yards and a score—Juan Diego showed that it could retaliate in a matter of seconds to even things up again. Tyson Church’s two-yard run and Doran Williams’ PAT made it 7-0 after the Hawks had run almost five-and-a-half minutes off the clock, but Juan Diego’s Mookie Murphy got it all back in 12 seconds when he streaked up the middle 85 yards with the ensuing kickoff. The suddenness of Murphy’s score shocked the North Sanpete sidelines and proved that the Soaring Eagle could strike from anywhere at any time. The teams traded threeand-outs before North Sanpete regrouped and engineered another clock-killing drive, this time nine running plays covering 92 yards finished off by Tyler Walker’s 15-yard scamper to the end zone. Juan Diego had a hard time moving the ball against the Hawk defense and midway through the second period replaced Michael Larsen at quarterback with Corey LAURA BARNEY / PICTURES BY LAURA North Sanpete Hawk Tyson Church sprints through Juan Diego defenders in last week’s 39-17 homecoming victory over the Soaring Eagle. Church produced an astounding 294 yards rushing and four touchdowns. Lever. But Lever fumbled the snap on his second play and Church recovered to set the Hawks up at the Juan Diego 37. After a 17-yard run by Walker moved the ball near the goal line, Church took it in from the two to put North Sanpete up 20-7. For a second time, however, Juan Diego showed it was a big play team as Mychal Robinson returned the kickoff 70 yards to the Hawk 22. But again the Hawk defense stuffed the Soaring Eagle and Angel Enriquez booted a 35yard field goal to cut the Hawk lead to 20-10 as the first half ended. In the first minute of the second half Robinson reeled off a 42-yard scoring run to draw Juan Diego to within three at 20-17, and it appeared that mo- mentum had swung to the Soaring Eagle. Church sprang loose on a 42-yard run of his own to the Juan Diego 33, but there the Hawk drive stalled, loosing yardage on first and second downs to bring up a third-and14 from the 37. In what was possibly the biggest play of the game, Wheeler connected with wide receiver Colton Blackham on a huge thirddown pass that moved the ball to the three, Blackham spinning between two defenders and falling toward the goal line as he took the pass right between the numbers on his chest. From there Church scored on first down and momentum was North Sanpete’s the remainder of (See “Hawks” on A10) |