OCR Text |
Show orts Guardian of Your Community News A12 • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009 AT SALEM HILLS HIGH Barry Dalton / The Sentinel HIGHLIGHTS: In a game dominated by offense, Spanish Fork's Travis Still, left, had three touchdowns, while SH QB Josh Adams, above, ran for two and threw for three more. Dons down Skyhawks in offensive fireworks show Marshall Dunn STAFF WRITER In the first ever meeting between the two new rivals, Spanish Fork went to Salem and handed them their first blowout loss of the season, in a 61-34 rout. The game was an offense shootout, with both team's offenses dominating the opposing defense, and seemingly scoring at will. However, midway through the third quarter the Skyhawks ran out of steam and had to watch as the Spanish Fork offense ran away with the game. That seems to be the story in all of Salem's losses, they hang close until the end of the game, but can't ever seem to close out the close games. Salem Hill's coach Monte Morgan attributes the team's inability to finish to lack of maturity. "Maturity. This is a young program and they're still trying to figure out the level of maturity that it takes to win close games at this level." Spanish Fork started the scor- ing on their very first drive and never looked backed. Their first drive was reminiscent of how the entire night would go; it was a long drive, with key third down conversions, and ended with a TD run by Tim Moala. Salem had an offensive showing as well, and answered back on their next drive, opening with a long pass from Josh Adams to Cody Bullard, and culminated with a TD pass to Josh Fafita. After those drives, the teams began trading touchdowns, with Salem only punting twice in the whole game, and Spanish Fork never having to kick the ball away. With Spanish Fork ahead 34-27 towards the end of the third quarter, the Don's defense showed up and made big plays, with Merik Richardson grabbing two interceptions, returning one 70 yards for the last touchdown of the game to seal the win. "They did a great job at keeping the pressure on our offense to score and match their offensive production," said Coach Morgan. "They kept the pressure on the whole game, and eventually we blinked." In the fourth quarter Spanish Fork relied on its defense and the running game of PJ Inoke and Moala to run down the clock. Although the game was dominated by the offenses, it was the key defensive stops down the stretch that made the win possible. "In the end our defense was able to make a few plays for us, that turned out to be the difference in the game," said Spanish Fork head coach Matt Christensen. ALA hangs tough in loss Riley Lewis STAFF WRITER Kaleb Davis / The Sentinel GOING UP: Maple Mountain's Brennan Hyatt gets a reception in the Payson game. Golden Eagles fall to Lions Jeril Bills STAFF WRITER Despite having never won a game since the program's inception, the Maple Mountain High School football team had at least managed to score in every game up until now. That changed on Friday, as Payson beat the Golden Eagles 35-0. While the final score is still not encouraging, Coach Brad Burtenshaw saw some positive things in his team's performance. "We're learning a lot, and doing some things better, but, you know, we've still got a long ways to go, still got a lot to learn in order to win a varsity game," said Burtenshaw. "Payson's a good team ... they've got good running backs, a good quarterback, solid line ... We can't SeeMMHS*A9 The American Leadership Academy Eagles hosted the Wasatch Wasps to open region 10 play on Friday night. It was a rough introduction to the region for the Eagles as they lost to the fifth-ranked in the state Wasps, 27-50. The Eagles were still able to stay competitive with a good team. The Eagles came out on fire when Tony Pulu returned the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. That was the only lead the Eagles would have on the night, however, because Wasatch would then score 31 unanswered points. The Eagle defense had trouble stopping the pass all night, and the Wasps were able to air it out for big yardage. The Eagles were unable to score again until a 70-yard pass from Hunter Morley to Riley Lewis set up a 30-yard field goal, making it 10-31 with a few minutes left in the half, and it would remain that way going into halftime. Coming out after the half, the Eagles seemed more intense, but Wasatch was able to score two more touchdowns before another 30-yard field goal by Jared Chichia. The field goal was set up by a 60-yard gain by Marcus Monson. •i Namon Bills / The Sentinel PLAY ACTION: ALA Quarterback Hunter Morley throws against Wasatch. On their next possession, the Eagles drove down and scored on a 21-yard touchdown pass to Cole Fulton, which brought the score to 20-44 with eleven minutes left in the fourth quarter. Wasatch scored one more touchdown before they were done scoring for the night. The Eagles also had one more touchdown in them as Hunter Morley scored on a 24-yard scamSee ALA • A9 |