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Show B1 The Emery County Review, Tuesday, September 9, 2008 SPORTS Spartans take first win in overtime Josie Luke It took just two plays in overtime for the Emery football team to secure their first win of the young season, and one of those was a fumble by their opponent, the Desert Hills Thunder. The other was a game ending 25- yard run by Colby Snow, who had three rushing touchdowns in the game. Head Coach Jimmy Jones summed it up, “They fumbled on the first play of overtime, and we scored on the first play. It was over pretty fast.” The Spartans wrapped up a solid second half with their overtime heroics to lock up the win, 20-14. Overtime may have been over quickly for the Spartans, but with three first half turnovers, the game threatened to be a repeat of their two losses, when although their defense played well and their offense showed promise on several plays, the team was not able to recover and score enough points to pull out the win. Desert Hills scored the first and only touchdown of the first half on one of those turnovers, an Freshman Mandy Davis jumps for the ball. interception which they ran back 68 yards for the score. Emery tied the score in the third quarter when Snow rushed 10 yards for his first touchdown, but the Thunder then took the lead on a huge 46-yard pass play. In the fourth quarter, Snow’s second touchdown run brought the score to 14-14 at the end of regulation, forcing the overtime period. In overtime, during high school games, each team begins their drive on the 25 yard line and proceeds just as they would during the game, either scoring or turning the ball over on downs. Emery won the coin toss and elected to play defense, giving Desert Hills the opportunity to score first. But after Gatlan Huntington forced the Thunder fumble, it also gave the Spartans the opportunity to end the game if they could put together a 25 yard drive to score. They did that on their first play, Snow’s final run, and his longest, of 25 yards. Coach Jones was pleased with the efforts of many of the players on the team. On offense, he reported that Snow, Chance Ariotti and the offensive line all performed well. Defensively, he pointed to the defensive line, Derrick Allred and Nick Stoddard, who in his first game as starting corner back, grabbed an interception. The Spartans will finally play their first home game this Friday against American Leadership. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. American Leadership comes in with a record of 0-3, but two losses were against 3A teams and each loss was against a team leading their respective region. Sophomore Jessica Murray flies for a return in tournament play at Carbon. Volleyball team set to begin region play ‘Great attitude’ will guide Spartans James L. Davis The Spartan volleyball team closed out their last week of non-region play with a grueling schedule that had the team facing Union at home on Sept. 2, traveling to Uintah on Sept. 4 and then closing out the week with a two-day junior varsit, sophomore tournament at Carbon. Against Union the varsity Spartans won in three games, taking it to the Union team in an impressive display by a maturing team. “They were all over Union. They’ve come a long way,” said varsity coach Kris Bell. Two days later on Sept. 4 the Spartans stumbled against Uintah and were shut out, losing in three, and Coach Bell said but the loss was a frustrating end to a frustrating day for the Spartans. After a three-hour drive to Uintah, the varsity team waited another three hours before playing their first game, and once they did, Uintah was ready for them. “No matter how hard they tried, Uintah tried harder,” Coach Bell said. On Sept. 5-6 the junior varsity and sophomore teams traveled to Carbon for a tournament where they faced teams from throughout the state and the nonstop pace of the games gave the teams a lot of experience to take into region play. On Sept. 5 the JV team won two games and lost to Carbon, and on the second day the JV Spartans won a game and then began to fade, ending the tournament with a 4-4 record as fatigue took its toll. For the sophomore team the tournament was a killing field as the team defeated every team that came their way, going into the final game of the tournament undefeated to face Skyview, a team they had beaten earlier, but only after a hard-fought battle. In the end the Skyview team was able to stop the sophomore Spartans, holding them to 14 points and then coming from behind to defeat Emery in a heartbreaker and take the tournament trophy out of the Spartans’ grasp. As the Spartans prepare for region play, Coach Bell said she sees a team far different than the one she coached last year, where the Spartans were unable to win a single region game. The difference she said is attitude. “They’ve got a great attitude this year. They’re ready to play. From last year to this year it’s a complete turnaround,” Coach Bell said. The Spartans will face Salem Hills at Salem Hills for their first region game on Sept. 18. Markette Tanner taps one over the net against Skyview. Photos by James L. Davis Golf team stumbles Tennis team fares well against Delta at North Sanpete Rebecca Lofley Casey Wood The Emery golf team traveled to North Sanpete for a tournament on Sept. 4. When the tournament ended around the final scores were tallied, and Emery was once again in the last place position. The top four scors for the team were put up by Jason Giles, shooting an 80; junior Mark Guymon, shooting an 85; senior Tayler Tanner, shooting a 95; and junior Brady Jensen, shooting a 96. Final scores were: Juan Diego in first place with 322, followed by Salem Hills in second shooting 323; Carbon took third, shooting 336; and North Sanpete took fourth place, shooting 338. Taking fifth was Delta, and rounding up in last place was Emery. Emery travels to Salem Hills on Sept. 11, where they plan for a better showing. The Emery tennis team went head to head with the Delta tennis team in Delta on Sept. 2. The top varsity players won with a clean sweep. Both first doubles, Adriane Weihing and Melanie Frisbie, and second doubles, Kaitlin Potter and Courtney Sitterud, won their matches with set scores of two-love. Whitney Saupan, first singles, won her match winning two of the three sets. According to Whitney, more practice and actually focusing on where she was hitting made the difference between her winning and losing. The junior varsity team also played well with only a few losses. The team played North Sanpete Sept. 3 in Mount Pleasant. The North Sanpete first doubles team and Emery’s first doubles were evenly matched. The game went into two tie breaker sets, lasting three and a half hours, and resulted in a North Sanpete win. As for second doubles, Potter and Sitterud, they came out on top winning their match. The JV team also won over half of their matches. As Saupan stated “practice” and “focus” make the difference. The tennis team seeks to improve playing by practicing and learning to consistently place the ball where they want it…just beyond their opponents reach. The new JV girls are learning to do just this. Gabriel Guymon related the following story, “I was up at the net, and the other team hit a lob way up in the air, so I angled my racket to the corner where no one could get it. It was awesome!” The tennis team will have three home games this week. A Sept. 9 match against Salem Hills, Sept. 10 against Uintah, and Sept. 11 against Juan Diego. |
