HURRICANE — A change of momentum late in the first half gave Desert Hills a lead it would never surrender in a 37-10 win at Tigers Stadium Friday night.
A bad snap on a punt turned into a safety, cutting a Hurricane lead to 10-9 with 1:14 left before halftime. The Thunder then took over after the safety kickoff at the Hurricane 45-yard line. A couple of plays late, Nick Warmsley found Cody Ricketts from 29 yards out on a beautiful post pass to give D-Hills a 16-10 lead at intermission. After that, it was all Desert Hills.
“It’s always like that between us and Hurricane in the first half,” DH coach Carl Franke said. “It seems like it’s always just tight. But in the second half, we had a different attitude. We played like we’re supposed to play — with energy and emotion.”
The Thunder offensive line started to take over in the second half, leading to three more unanswered scores. D-Hills got a stop to start the third quarter, then Warmsley capped a 5-play, 43-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown keeper.
After another stop, Marco Jordan capped a 6-play, 76-yard drive with a 1-yard dive that made it 30-10. The game started to get away from the Tigers early in the fourth quarter when Warmsley hit Garrick Sharp from 17-yards out to make it 37-10.
Desert Hills had a 7-3 lead when Warmsley hit Ricketts from 55 yards out on the first play of the second quarter. After a touchback on the kickoff, Jake Carr went 80 yards on a dive play right up the middle of the field to put the Tigers up 10-7, leading to the key moments late in the first half.
The Thunder, 2-2 overall and 1-0 in region play, got 213 passing yards and 93 rushing yards from Warmsley, while Ricketts had 141 yards receiving.
Hurricane, 2-2 and 0-1, got 142 passing yards from Josh Parker and Carr finished the night with 119 rushing yards on 12 carries.
Desert Hills plays host to Dixie next Friday night, with Hurricane traveling to Pine View.
For more on this game, including highlights, insight, quotes and more great photos, see the Saturday Breakdown on STGNews.com.
Stats: DH 37, Hurricane 10
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