ST. GEORGE — Crimson Cliffs and Snow Canyon came away with road victories on the first Friday night of Region 10 regular season football action.

Crimson Cliffs beat Desert Hills 21-14 while Snow Canyon held on to win in Cedar 20-17.

In Hurricane, the lights went out twice — the second time with 2:30 left in the fourth quarter — but the Tigers defeated Pine View 28-19.

Dixie High had a bye this week and returns to action next Friday when the Flyers host Pine View.

Following are recaps of Friday night’s games.

Crimson Cliffs 21, Desert Hills 14

The Mustangs held on to survive the Thunder and earned the program’s first-ever football victory over Desert Hills.

“Don’t get me wrong, we beat this team tonight because of all the teams before us,” first-year Crimson Cliffs head coach Wayne Alofipo told St. George News after speaking to his team.

“It’s a progression and it wasn’t just this team that was different,” he added. “We built the confidence and understood the physicality, got bigger, stronger, faster. And the kids are four years into the program and now understand our systems. That makes a big difference.” 

Crimson came out on fire and scored on its first possession. Quarterback Steele Barben spread the ball around, connecting on passes to Luke Childs, Owen Peterson and Konner Kell, moving the ball rapidly down the field.

Barben’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Eaton and Ty Ottenshot’s extra point put the Mustangs ahead 7-0.

The teams then traded punts on the next four possessions.

Desert Hills got on the board behind Tyden Morris, who broke several tackles and rumbled for a 48-yard touchdown. Shyaden Scott’s extra point kick knotted the score 7-7.

Crimson Cliffs took a 14-7 lead into halftime after Mason Tapolian’s 5-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter.

Late in the third quarter Barben found Ottenshot down the sideline for a 65-yard scoring pass, and Crimson was ahead for good 21-7.

Morris made things close in the end with his 1-yard TD run that brought the score to 21-14 with a little less than five minutes left.

But Crimson’s defense held both times it was challenged late, sealing the victory with an Jace Sweeten interception in the red zone.

“Our job was just to try to limit them, make them take long drives and not give up big plays,” said Alofipo , noting that there were four or five missed tackles on the long scoring run by Morris in the first half.

“We just got to be better at tackling and making sure we bring good backs like that down and contain them and make them earn every yard,” he added.

Crimson bounced back from a major loss to Timpview last week and improved to 3-1 overall. More importantly for the Mustangs, they are 1-0 in Region 10 play and have beaten the defending champs.

“It’s one win in the first region game,” Alofipo said. “You can’t put too much stock on that right now. We just got to take it one game at a time.”

Crimson Cliffs hosts Snow Canyon (2-2, 1-0) next Friday while Desert Hills (2-2, 0-1) has a non-region game at home against North Sanpete.

– written by E. George Goold

Snow Canyon 20, Cedar 17

At Cedar City, the Snow Canyon Warriors came back in the second half to edge the Cedar Reds.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Warriors made it into the end zone first when quarterback Hunter Johnson followed a 19-yard run up the middle with a 5-yard rush for a TD. The ensuing point-after attempt was blocked, leaving Snow Canyon with a 6-0 lead with 9:07 left in the second quarter.

Cedar’s next drive was a three-and-out followed by a punt to midfield, which Dahrius Romander returned 25 yards to Cedar’s 25-yard line, giving the Warriors excellent field position.

However, Snow Canyon was unable to get any closer than the 19-yard line, with Cedar taking over on downs with just over three minutes left in the second quarter.

Cedar’s next play was a 62-yard pass from Koden Lunt to Stockton Albrecht, bringing the Reds inside Snow Canyon’s 20-yard line.

A few plays later, Jourdan Raftery scored on a 7-yard run. Parker Kucifer’s PAT kick was good, giving Cedar a 7-6 lead with 55 seconds left in the second quarter.

Snow Canyon’s Will Warner ran back the ensuing kickoff 67 yards to Cedar’s 32-yard line, but the Warriors were backed up 10 yards on the play due to an illegal block.

On first down, Johnson completed a 20-yard pass to Teagan Hugh, putting the Warriors at Cedar’s 22-yard line.

Following a Snow Canyon time-out, the Warriors looked to make another pass play, but Cedar’s Ammon York intercepted the ball and ran it back to Snow Canyon’s 39-yard line. The turnover set up a 37-yard FG by Kucifer, which gave Cedar a 10-6 lead heading into halftime.

Cedar started the third quarter with a three-and-out, followed by a punt. Snow Canyon then regained momentum when quarterback Johnson exploded for a 73-yard TD score. Corbin Christian’s PAT was good, putting the Warriors up 13-10 with 9:41 left in the third.

Cedar advanced the ball to midfield on its next drive, but Warner intercepted a pass and ran it back all the way to the end zone. Warner’s timely pick-six gave the Warriors a 20-10 lead with just under eight minutes left in the third quarter.

The only remaining score of the game also came on a defensive play, as York snagged another interception midway through the fourth quarter and returned it 38 yards for a touchdown. That brought Cedar within 20-17 with 6:53 left in the game.

After York’s TD, the Warriors managed to run off nearly four minutes of clock time before punting to the Reds’ 21-yard line. Cedar then managed to advance the ball to midfield but the Reds were not able to get within field goal range in the final minutes.

Snow Canyon, which improved to 2-2 overall, 1-0 in Region 10 with the win, plays at Crimson Cliffs next Friday. Meanwhile, Cedar dropped to 1-3 overall, 0-1 in region play with the loss. Cedar hosts Hurricane for the Reds’ homecoming game next week.

– written by Jeff Richards

Hurricane 28, Pine View 19
The Tigers won their first Region 10 game in two years, and it came on their new field at Hurricane High School. The fans had to suffer through two power outages before the score was final.

Hurricane jumped to leads of 14-0 after the first and 21-7 at halftime to secure the win.

Tigers quarterback Garritt Grondel tossed four touchdowns in the game. Two went to RJ Wright (15 yards, 11 yards) while Ethan Staples (1 yard) and Toaa Alualu (19 yards) caught the other two TDs.

Pine View did not make it easy as Tyler Brown ran for a 5-yard score and threw a 16-yard TD pass to Brock Harris.

Abe Rosenland scored on a 1-yard TD run with a little under 3 minutes remaining. But Pine View was stopped on the 2-point run attempt to provide the final margin.

Hurricane improved to 1-3, 1-0 in Region 10, and is at Cedar next Friday.

Pine View, meanwhile, is still seeking its first win this year and is at Dixie (2-1) next Friday.

– written by E. George Goold

Other scores from Southwest Utah:

Rich 43, Water Canyon 6

Rich broke out for a ton of big plays as they cruised to a win over Water Canyon in their first-ever meeting.

Senior Trey Walker led the rushing attack for the Rebels, scoring touchdowns from 50 and 58 yards away. Sophomore Jaden Desch scored on defense for Rich with an interception return of 12 yards.

Water Canyon senior Dylan completed a touchdown pass to senior Jonathan Timpson in the loss.

Enterprise 20, N. Summit 7

Enterprise improved to 4-0 on the season. Tied 7-7 at the half, the Wolves pulled away in the second half as Jaden Drake scored on a 10-yard run and then Jackson Hiatt completed a 54-yard TD pass to Clayton Anzalone with one second left in the third quarter.

Kanab 34, Duchesne 27

Trailing by seven with just over six minutes left in the game, Kanab, now 4-0, scored 14 unanswered points to eke out a win over Duchesne. Parker Franklin’s 8-yard touchdown run with 51 seconds remaining was the game-winning score for the Cowboys.

Beaver 44, Summit Academy 7

Summit Academy came in averaging 39 points per game, but the Beavers surrendered a single touchdown on defense. Beaver senior Ayden Bradshaw rushed for two scores in the Beavers’ first win of the season.

Gunnison Valley 41, Parowan 27

Justin DeGroff had two touchdowns in the losing cause for the Rams, while teammates Cooper Miller and Wyatt Hall added one TD each.

The Bulldogs were up 21-0 at the half and 28-0 in the third quarter before Parowan got on the board.

Beaver 44, Summit Academy 7

The Beaver Beavers picked up their first win of the season with a home victory over the Summit Academy Bears. Ayden Bradshaw rushed for two TDs for Beaver.

San Juan 55, Milford 10

At San Juan, the Milford Tigers fell behind 22-3 in the first quarter as the Broncos rolled to a decisive victory. The loss dropped previously undefeated Milford to 3-1 on the season.

Photo Gallery

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.