Tigers defense steps up in stunning upset of Desert Hills; STGNews photo gallery

Written by Andy Griffin
November 14, 2014
The Hurricane Tigers celebrate their semi-final victory over the Desert Hills Thunder, Desert Hills vs. Hurricane, 2014 3AA Football Playoffs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

SALT LAKE CITY – It must be nerve-wracking for a football coach to put so much faith in a 10th grader. But Hurricane coach Steve Pearson did just that and sophomore quarterback Josh Parker responded by helping the Tigers to a 17-14 win over Desert Hills in the 3AA State Semifinals at Rice Eccles Stadium.

hurricane-smDesert-Hills-sm“We do have confidence in him,” Pearson said. “This time of year, you have to have confidence in him. You have to stretch it a little bit and try things you haven’t done. Josh stepped up and did a great, great job. He’s a very cool customer and that’s what we love about him.”

Parker, who made just his second career start since senior Kaden Langston went down with an injury, certainly didn’t win the game by himself. But he managed the game, passed for 104 yards and (perhaps most importantly) didn’t turn the ball over.

Josh Parker, Desert Hills vs. Hurricane, 2014 3AA Football Playoffs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Josh Parker, Desert Hills vs. Hurricane, 2014 3AA Football Playoffs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

The Tigers never trailed in the game and led by 10 twice in the game at 10-0 early in the third quarter and 17-7 late in the third. But Desert Hills, which beat Hurricane 21-3 just four weeks ago, kept climbing back into the game.

In fact, the Thunder had the ball inside the Hurricane 10-yard line with under two minutes to play and the score 17-14. D-Hills had just converted a fourth-and-7 play from the Hurricane 41 when Nick Warmsley found Bridger Cowdin for a 34-yard gain.

Charlie Sefita (52) puts a hit on Thunder QB Nick Warmsley (9) knocking the ball loose late in the game, Desert Hills vs. Hurricane, 2014 3AA Football Playoffs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Charlie Sefita (52) puts a hit on Thunder QB Nick Warmsley (9) knocking the ball loose late in the game, Desert Hills vs. Hurricane, 2014 3AA Football Playoffs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

With the clock reading exactly two minutes to play, Warmsley rolled right and took a wicked hit from Tigers linebacker Charlie Sefita. The smashing blow popped the ball 10 feet in the air and Tyson Yardley plucked the loose pigskin out of the sky to stop the scoring threat. Hurricane then ran out the remaining time to clinch a spot in next week’s 3AA championship game.

“You know what? We stayed together. That’s all I can say, man,” Hurricane linebacker Jeremiah Ieremia said. “This whole week we emphasized staying together and even though they got that big play on fourth down, we stuck together.Someone had to step up. Someone had to step up and it was Charlie making that big hit.”

A month ago, Desert Hills held Hurricane to just a field goal all game. The Tigers eclipsed that mark on the game’s first drive, going 75 yards on eight plays. Parker hit Noah Elison with a 38-yard pass down the l;eft sideline and found Nick McDaniel on the right sideline with a 17-yarder. JD Stanworth capped the drive with a 2-yard dive to make it 7-0 with less than four minutes gone in the game.

As it turns out, the score would stay that way until the third quarter, thanks in part to a diving interception in the second quarter by McDaniel. The Thunder also missed a 26-yard field goal late in the first half.

The Tigers improved the lead to 10-0 midway through the third. DH got stuffed on a fourth-and-1 play, setting the Tigers uop with a short field. Hurricane then marched it to the Thunder 18 and Stanworth kicked a 35-yard field goal to make it a two score lead with 4:47 to go in the third.

It took Desert Hills just two plays to cut it to 10-7 as Cowdin ran for 22 yards and then Warmsley hit Mason Palmer with a 38-yard TD with 4:10 left in the third.

The Tigers answered right back, marching 74 yards in 10 plays. The big hitter was a 35-yard swing pass from Parker to McDaniel. Ieremia also ran for a 25-yard burst and had seven carries on the drive, including the TD from 2-yards out on third-and-goal.

That made it 17-7 with 24 seconds left in the third. After an exchange of punts, Nephi Sewell made it a 17-14 game when he exploded for a 59-yard run with 9:34 left in the game on a play in which it looked like he was stuffed in the backfield.

Charlie Sefita shows his excitement after beating Desert Hills, Desert Hills vs. Hurricane, 2014 3AA Football Playoffs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News
Charlie Sefita shows his excitement after beating Desert Hills, Desert Hills vs. Hurricane, 2014 3AA Football Playoffs, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 14, 2014 | Photo by Robert Hoppie, ASPpix.com, St. George News

Desert Hills had two more possessions. The first ended with a punt with 5:52 left in the game. The Thunder got it right back at their own 30 when McDaniel was stopped short on a fourth down run with 3:58 left in the game. But both teams had burned all their timeouts, so the clock ran quickly down and it was all over when Sefita forced the Warmsley fumble with 1:49 to go.

“We had a lot more confidence and we knew that we could win this game,” Elison said. “Our slogan was ‘Believe’ for this week. We believed.”

The Thunder were two TD favorites coming into the game after winning the region and sporting a 10-1 record. But the Tigers, now 8-5, were not intimidated and played a very physical game.

“Early in the game, when we were able to march the length of the field on the opening drive, that was big,” Pearson said. “That was as pretty a drive as I’ve seen in a long time. Our defense was pretty stingy and this came down to who made the fewest mistakes. We didn’t turn the ball over ever and that’s the difference.”

Hurricane did not turn the ball over in the game and about 60 more yards than they had the first time against the Thunder (204-141). The Tigers also had fewer penalties than the Thunder as the Tigers had five for 33 yards and DH had 12 for 93.

Desert Hills, which finishes the year 10-2, got 138 passing yards and 62 rushing yards from Warmsley. But star running back Cowdin, who averaged eight yards a carry this season, was held to 59 yards on 13 carries (4.6 ypc).

The Tigers move on to the title game, where they’ll face Dixie, which beat Pine View 38-28 Thursday night. Hurricane beat the Flyers 34-14 earlier this season, though Dixie was playing without starting quarterback Ammon Takau in that game.

The two teams will square off Friday at 11 a.m. here at Rice-Eccles as part of a tripleheader at the venue with the 4A and 5A games played later in the day.

Hurricane won the championship in 2011 and the Flyers captured the title in 2012.

Stats: Hurricane 17, Desert Hills 14

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery. 

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Twitter: @oldschoolag

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Andy Griffin has been in sports media since 1989 and has covered BYU, Utah State and the Utah Jazz as well as all sports in southern Utah. A journalism graduate of USU, Andy has carried on a dual career as both a sports writer and a sports broadcaster and has been heard around the country. He has also been published in USA Today, Sport magazine, The Sporting News, Fairways magazine, the Los Angeles Times and locally in the Deseret News, the Salt Lake Tribune and the Spectrum. Andy was “The Voice of Region 9 sports,” for many years. He also hosted a daily sports talk show for three years called AG in the a.m. Andy has been married to his college sweetheart Shelly for 28 years and has five children ages 13 to 25.

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7 Comments

  • BOREC November 15, 2014 at 3:45 am

    Hurricane came to play tonight! All year, I’ve been puzzled by DH’s offensive play calling. It just seemed that it took a big play on special teams or on defense to get the offense going. When that didn’t happen, the “professional” OC seemed lost. Tonight it showed and it showed badly! Rumor has it that the DH OC scouts for the NFL Raiders and we all know how that show is going. In prior stint with SC, the same thing occurred. Completely out of his element. Franke needs to go back to what worked last year. Too much talent to have an OC ruin it for the kids like he did tonight. Returning POY and he touches the ball twice? The play calling all season long was horrendous and tonight it was pitiful! Very, very frustrating!

    • Vaasa December 7, 2014 at 9:22 pm

      You’re an imbecile. Probably a parent with an agenda.

  • Hike November 15, 2014 at 3:57 am

    A lot of empty seats in that stadium. Will the Dunder blame losing to the Tiggers on the fumble blunder?

  • San November 15, 2014 at 5:48 am

    Wow…so proud of these guys!!!

  • S. Carter November 15, 2014 at 8:54 am

    Way to go H-Town!! Going from being picked to finish at the bottom with Payson, to one win away from another state championship is unbelievable!! This won’t be the same Dixie from the regular season. Good luck to all!!

  • Herd November 15, 2014 at 9:07 am

    Too bad Pineview didn’t win. We could of had the Meow Mix bowl.

  • Mrs.H November 15, 2014 at 11:02 am

    Well done Tigers!

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