By Steve Pimper
MaxPreps.com
The Friday Night lights switched on across the Beehive State last week as 87 schools, 17 new head coaches and tens of thousands of prep football fans filled stadiums from Tremonton to St. George for the first pigskin action of the 2007 campaign.
With the usual enthusiasm, some not so favorable weather conditions and most of all some helmet knocking, pad-popping turf action week No. 1 of the season is in the books with some nice individual player performances and a few surprises, too.
In an early season showdown for bragging rights in the small school sector, the 1A top-ranked Kanab Cowboys traveled to the defending 2A state champions and No. 1 pre-season ranked San Juan Broncos. The Cowboys tamed the champion Broncos and struck the first blow for the smallest schools by posting a convincing 27-7 win.
The defending 1A champion Duchesne Eagles also moved up in competition by visiting the tragedy-stricken Crandall Mine community that is home to the 3A Emery Spartans. Both teams, along with their fans, stood in a pre-game minute of silence for the three dead rescue miners and the six still-missing underground workers and then the visiting Eagles presented a check for $1,600 to be given to the tragedy-stricken miners' families. The visiting champion Eagles scored on a 6-yard scamper by Tyler Reinhardt in overtime as Duchesne won its 14th straight game by an 18-12 score.
In Bountiful, another emotional game took place. The Vikings of Viewmont lost senior running back Seth Fraughton in a tragic drowning accident at Bear Lake in early August and remembered him fondly as they hosted the Orem Tigers. The visiting Tigers, also aware of the loss, showed nothing but class as their coaches and team captains wore armbands that read "33-Fallen Hero" in respect for Fraughton. Viewmont then proceeded to ride the arm of quarterback Chris Larsen, who threw four touchdown passes in leading the Vikings to an emotional 33-8 victory.
Viewmont head coach, Robbie Gunter commented after the game that he got "goosebumps" when the Viewmont team grabbed the 33-0 lead in the third quarter because the No. 33 that Fraughton would have worn seemed to somehow be present at that point.
The state's longest winning streak reached 15 straight as the No. 1 ranked and defending 5A champion Bingham Miners cruised by the Skyline Eagles 34-7. Sam Langi led the Miners with two touchdown jaunts of 38 and 76 yards in the first quarter while placekicker supreme Justin Sorenson had two field goals (26 and 36-yards).
Next up for the Miners will be none other than the No. 2 ranked Alta Hawks. The Hawks tuned up for the rematch of last fall's title game by destroying Spanish Fork 44-7 without the services of all-state running back Sausan Shakerin. He was held out of the opener due to a knee injury, but should be ready for the Beehive State's Game of the Week this coming Friday night at Bingham. The Hawks still had more than enough firepower to overwhelm the Dons as Parker Wallbeck and quarterback Ryan Rosenvall accounted for five touchdowns in the rout.
Another interesting game found two-time all-state receiver Cody Raymond of Jordan making 12 catches for 138-yards and two touchdowns while adding yet another TD on a 5-yard run as the visiting Beetdiggers slipped by Northridge 27-26 in a game that was finally called after an hour-and-a-half lightning delay. There were seven minutes remaining in the game when the decision was made to call the contest because of the dangerous weather conditions.
Other notable opening night contests across the state found three schools from St. George all posting impressive wins as Pine View thumped Mountain View 42-14, Snow Canyon clobbered Uintah 47-16, and Dixie rolled by Springville 39-17.
Also Layton lived up to preseason hype by crushing Bonneville 41-6 while the Judge Memorial Bulldogs thumped North Sanpete 42-7. Freddy Fernandes, who guided Northridge to three consecutive state titles (2000-2002), returned to the coaching ranks after a short hiatus and guided Woods Cross to a 33-14 win over Ben Lomond. The first football game ever played by the new school Syracuse Titans found the all underclassman squad falling to Roy by a 41-6 count.
In the cliffhanger category, 2A Millard used a two-point conversion by Quincy Thatcher to edge the 3A Tigers of Hurricane in double overtime 28-27. Riverton scored 27 points in the second half with the final victory coming off the foot of kicker Aaron Jaussi who nailed a 27-yard field goal in the final seconds as the Silverwolves slipped by Timpanogas 27-24. Cyprus also got a 37-yard field goal from David Walgamott with 35 seconds remaining to lift the Pirates to a hard fought 9-7 win over Tooele. Finally the Carbon High Dinos provided a little bit of joy for the eastern Utah mining community by posting a defensive 7-6 victory over the American Leadership Academy of Spanish Fork.
Games falling into the surprise column would have to include Weber's 35-29 upset of ranked Box Elder, 3A Park City's 22-10 victory over 5A Hillcrest, The Darts of Davis High's easy 24-6 win over usually powerful Hunter and Bountiful's 20-0 shutout of Lone Peak.
Some final notes on the first week would include seven of the 17 new coaches in action posting victories.Kovi Christiansen of Morgan (28-14 over Juab), Doug Bills of Union (21-14 over Delta), Cecil Thomas (14-3 over rival Brighton), Barry Jones of Enterprise (a 12-6 overtime win over Beaver) and the aforementioned teams of Dixie (Rick Secrist), Carbon (Tom Tiller) and Woods Cross (Freddy Fernandes).
Looking to this Friday's big games.the biggest looks to be the Alta at Bingham clash. The teams are ranked first and second and both posted impressive debut victories and are loaded with talent. Not only will this game be the focus of Utah prep football fans but is also gaining some National High School attention and will be one of the featured games on the Max Preps / CBS Sports web site this week.
The interstate battles heat up as well this weekend with Cottonwood traveling to Grand Junction, Colo., while Gillette, Wyo., is at Logan and Star Valley, Idaho plays at Park City. Three teams from the Las Vegas, Nev., area will also travel north across the border as Spring Valley will be at Granger, while the always-tough Las Vegas Wildcats visit Pine View. The Cimarron Memorial Spartans will battle the Dixie Flyers and all-state running back Nate Carter.