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Show Wednesday, October 10, 2007 A9 Sanpete Messenger/Gunnison Valley Edition Ill winds blow for ‘Dogs Early scores lead to long drives in Manti’s 41-20 win over Gunnison By Sean Hales Associate editor GUNNISON—It’s not often that the key play of a football game comes before the first whistle blows, but such might have been the case last Friday in Manti’s 41-20 win over the Gunnison Bulldogs. Wi t h s t r o n g w i n d s blowing from the south in advance of a storm, Manti’s win of the coin toss and subsequent choice of which side of the field to defend made all the difference. With the wind at their b a c k s , t h e Te m p l a r s c o m pleted two big passes in the first quarter to help give them a lead and a little breathing room to grind out drives and eat up the clock in the second half. On the team’s first possession of the game, Manti q u a r t e r b a c k G r i ff i n A s t e found Tylan Jackson, who took the pass 30 yards into the end zone. On the second play of the Templars’ next possession, Aste found Nick Brown to set up a 6-yard touchdown run by SEAN HALES / MESSENGER PHOTO Tylan Jackson turns a medium pass into a 30-yard score— the Templar’s first of the night. The Templars capitalized on two passes to generate an early lead that lead to their 41-20 win over Gunnison last Friday. David Hugentobler and an early 13-0 lead. Hugentobler rushed 16 times for 112 yards and three touchdowns. Gunnison had opportunities in the first half to narrow the gap, but two passes from quarterback Bradley Jackson that sailed high stalled a drive, and receiver Shawn Gubeli missed a reception with nothing between him and the end zone but grass. With a 21-8 halftime lead, Manti seemed content to eat up the clock and took its first possession of the second half with 75 yards in 12 plays, and took nearly seven minutes off t h e c l o c k . C h a s e St e v e n s capped the drive with a 14yard run for a score and a 278 lead. After that, the teams traded touchdowns, including a 30-yard interception return by Aste to avenge two earlier interceptions by Gunnison defenders. Those two interceptions, both by Bulldog Jace Anderson set up two Gunnison scores, one in the second quarter and one in the third. For the Bulldogs, injuries and penalties played large roles in the loss. In fact, Gunnison rushed for 25 more yards than Manti (245-220), but many of Gunnison’s yards came as they were making up for penalties. But yardage wasn’t the only damage done by penalties. Bulldog running back Heston Neal, who rushed for 141 yards and all three of Gunnison’s touchdowns, had two scores called back because of penalties, including a kick return in the fourth quarter. Defensively for Gunnison, the loss of two starting linebackers led to SEAN HALES / MESSENGER PHOTO Cutler Frandsen finds a hole against Manti. Frandsen was a dependable backup to speedster Heston Neal and a linebacker on defense until an elbow injury sidelined him for the game Manti’s grinding drives in the second half. Defensive linemen David Crane and Spencer Hansen insisted Manti’s line wasn’t “getting a push,” but that Gunnison’s replacement linebackers couldn’t get the job done. For the game, Aste went 6-for-10 passing for 156 yards and a touchdown. Jackson went 8-for-28. With the win, Manti ought to be able to end the regular season with some momentum, a s t h e Te m p l a r s w i l l h o s t American Leadership Academy this Thursday, a team that has only won one game all year. Conversely, no team has yet beaten North Summit, and a win would be a tall order as the Bulldogs travel to Coalville on Friday. Snow Badgers defeats elements, Phoenix in 33-13 win By Richard Hales Staff writer EPHRAIM—The Snow College Badgers battled the elements as much as their opponents last Saturday in their 33-13 win over the Phoenix Bears. The wind put a damper on the kicking game, contributing to three missed field goal attempts, as precipitation helped lead to six fumbles in the game, two for Snow and four for Phoenix. Snow coughed up the first fumble on the opening kickoff deep in its own territory, but the Badger defense, which held Phoenix to 179 total yards in the contest, kept the Bears off the board. Snow’s Chris Romero recovered the first fumble for the Badgers late in the first quarter, but the Badger offense faltered and gave the ball back to Phoenix after missing a 40-yard field goal attempt early in the second quarter. Snow missed another field goal attempt from 32 yards out towards the end of the second quarter, but on Phoenix’s first subsequent play, they coughed up that ball, which Snow recovered. The Badger field goal unit went right back on the field for the final play of the first half and put three on the board. Snow’s offense also dropped the ball twice but recovered both times, the second tacking on 2 extra yards to an 8-yard Nui Takai run early in the fourth quarter. But the game was largely defined by the work of Snow running back Soni Sotele, who racked up 270 all-purpose yards and two touchdowns in the game. Sotele found the end zone early in the first quarter from 4 yards out and again in the third quarter from 6 yards out to cap Snow’s touchdowns and give the Badgers a 30-7 lead. Sotele had 207 yards rushing and 63 receiving yards. Snow quarterback Houston Erbstoesser, who was named the NJCAA Player of the Week last week, recorded the Badgers’ second score of the game, after runs by Sotele and Takai set up a playaction pass to Kimball Burton, which he took 30 yards for the score. Erbstoesser was 14-for-26 for 186 yards and a touchdown in the game. Takai got his name called midway through the second quarter and took the ball in from 12 yards out to put Snow up 20-0. He ended the game with 104 yards on 14 attempts. The Badgers took a 23-0 lead into the half. The one bright spot for Phoenix came after a recovered fumble put them at third and 20 from its own 39-yard line. The Bears’ offense had few bright spots and had to resort to trickery to find the end zone. On a fourth and goal early in the third quarter, the Phoenix quarterback put six points on the board—as a receiver—from a halfback pass. Later, a shovel pass that went 45 yards, a facemask and a pass interference call set up Phoenix’s final score of the game. At their homecoming this week, the Badgers will defend their first-place NJCAA ranking against their toughest test to date—the 10th place Glendale Gouchos. Game time will be 1:30 p.m. WWW.CLICK4SPORTS.NET Snow’s Soni Sotele found plenty of room to maneuver in Snow’s 33-13 win over Phoenix last Saturday. The running back generated 270 all-purpose yards against the Bears—207 rushing and 63 receiving. Manti soccer successful in first season With overtime win over Richfield, Templars secure second place By Bob Bahlmann Staff writer MANTI—In their first year as an official Utah High School Athletics Association soccer team, the Manti Lady Templars finished regular season play last Thursday with a 3-2 overtime win against Richfield to anchor a spot as the No. 2 team in Region 12. Manti kept the pressure on the Wildcats most of the game, taking a 2-1 lead in the first half, but a free kick in the second half allowed Richfield to tie the game at three goals each, forcing a sudden death overtime period. Emily Olsen scored three goals for the Templars and Sarah Scott had one. The victory earned the Templars a bye in the first round of the playoffs and home-field advantage in the second round. The Templars finished the season with a 9-3-2 record, the second best in the state, and are ranked No. 4 by the Deseret News. The undefeated Millard Eagles are ranked first, followed by Rowland Hall and Saint Joseph. North Sevier is ranked fifth. Manti has lost twice to Millard, once to North Sevier, and has tied with North Sevier and South Summit. South Summit will be playing South Sevier today, and the winner of that game will be Manti’s opponent on Saturday at the soccer fields north of Ephraim. Game time is 1 p.m. The winner of that game will advance and likely play Rowland Hall or Saint Joseph at Woods Cross on Friday, Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. in the semi-finals. WWW.CLICK4SPORTS.NET Templar Sarah Scott moves the ball downfield before scoring a goal in Manti’s 3-2 overtime win over Richfield last week. |
