High school football: Dominant defensive affair boots Lone Peak past Skyridge, earns championship rematch with Corner Canyon

There’s one stat you can look at from Friday’s 6A semifinal that tells much of the story of the battle between Region 3 foes Lone Peak and Skyridge. That stat is the time of possession.

Lone Peak’s time of possession was 32:29, while Skyridge had the ball for only 15:31.

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The Knights made sure the Falcons didn’t have enough time to fight for the win as they gritted out a 13-7 semifinal victory and advanced to the 6A championship game for the second consecutive year.

“We always want to have some long drives here and there to keep potent offenses off the field,” said Lone Peak head coach Bart Brockbank.

“It’s hard for them to get into a rhythm if we can keep them off the field, get them three-and-out, or four or five plays and then they’re out.”

Defense was the name of the game for the Knights as they held the Falcons scoreless in the first half. Outside of Skyridge’s lone scoring drive in the third quarter, it never had a single drive longer than seven plays.

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Meanwhile, the Lone Peak offense took its time and managed to put enough points on the board to win. Its opening drive didn’t end in a score, but the Knights marched down 55 yards while taking up 8:34 off the clock.

Lone Peak then had back-to-back scoring drives with a touchdown run from quarterback Kepa Niumeitolu and a 36-yard field goal from Jake Barker.

Niumeitolu was a consistent threat both on the ground and in the air. He ended Friday’s game with 156 passing yards on a 73% completion percentage, while adding 92 yards on the ground on 20 carries.

Niumeitolu said the defense’s dominance made the offense’s life much easier.

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“Our defense always comes up big for us when we need them,” Niumeitolu said. “We’re going to try to come up big when they need us. Just a great team win.”

While Lone Peak put itself in a good position late, a third-quarter touchdown run from Skyridge’s Kaneal Sweetwyne made it just a one-score game. The Knights’ margin for error suddenly became much thinner.

A scare nearly came as Sweetwyne had a well-thrown pass to Omarian Sanders on the next drive. Fortunately for Lone Peak, Utah commit Kennan Pula may have had the highlight of the year in Utah high school football.

He went up and grabbed a one-handed interception with his off-hand to not only keep Skyridge from getting the go-ahead touchdown, but it also gave his offense the ball back.

“I’ve seen that ball a million times,” Pula said. “I practiced that in football practice, and my left hand is actually bruised right now. So, I just went up there and caught it.”

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After the interception, Lone Peak once again took up nearly nine minutes on an offensive drive. Once again, it didn’t end in a touchdown, but it left only 2:51 left for Skyridge to make something happen.

As it did all night, the Knights stifled the Skyridge offense and forced a turnover on downs to punch their ticket to a 6A championship rematch with Corner Canyon.

National power Corner Canyon’s only blemish on an otherwise dominant year was a loss to Lone Peak in region play.

Corner Canyon won last year’s 6A championship game over Lone Peak in a come-from-behind victory.

“I can expect that they’re going to be out for revenge, and we’re going to have to match the intensity, same as last year,” Brockbank said.

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“It feels like this game and next game, it’s just like a repeat of last year. It feels like Groundhog Day. We’ve got to be ready for their attack. We’ve got to get our guys healthy and ready to go.”