The North Sanpete Hawks will take on the Manti Templars at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, these teams will really light up the scoreboard.
North Sanpete is headed into the contest after thoroughly thrashing Carbon: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that the Hawks blew the Dinos out of the water with a 45-10 final score. The Hawks haven't had any issues with the Dinos recently, as the game was their sixth consecutive victory against them.
North Sanpete had a senior duo take command as Maddox Madsen threw for 139 yards and one TD while completing 76.9% of his passes and Ayden Akee rushed for 87 yards and one touchdown. Another big playmaker for the Hawks was Seth Burningham, who returned a punt for a touchdown.
North Sanpete didn't let much get past them through the air: they limited Carbon to a completion percentage of just 31.8%. That dominant aerial defense primarily came from three players: Evan Burningham, Seth, and Braden Palmer, who each logged two passes deflected. North Sanpete has been improving in that area: they had allowed a completion percentage of 0.6 earlier this season, but they've only allowed one of 0.6 in their last three games.
Special teams played a big role in the game for North Sanpete, adding 15 points to the final score. The biggest highlight from special teams (and perhaps the team as a whole) came courtesy of Burningham, who ran a punt back for a touchdown.
Meanwhile, Manti beat San Juan 38-28 on Friday.
The match pitted two dominant backs against one another in Tala Taulapapa and Jagger Nieves. Taulapapa had a great game and gained 257 total yards and three touchdowns. Meanwhile, Nieves was balling out in the loss, rushing for 182 yards and a pair of scores, while also picking up 45 receiving yards.
Manti didn't go easy on the quarterback and picked off three passes before the game was over. It was truly a group effort as Carter Mason, Stone Mortensen, and Isaiah Wright picked up one apiece. Mason also passed for three passing touchdowns, which is notable because Manti is 3-1 when he posts at least three passing touchdowns, but 1-2 otherwise.
North Sanpete's win bumped their record up to 5-2. As for Manti, they now have a winning record of 4-3.
North Sanpete was dealt a bruising 47-10 loss at the hands of Manti in their previous matchup back in October of 2024. That matchup was all but decided by halftime, at which point the Hawks were down 27-3.
