ST. GEORGE — In Region 9 football action Friday night, both Dixie and Pine View won to remain unbeaten in region play. Meanwhile, third-place Desert Hills beat Hurricane and Cedar defeated Canyon View for their first region win, putting the Reds in a four-way tie for fourth place in the standings.

Dixie 34, Snow Canyon 28

In what would prove to be Dixie’s biggest test so far in Region 9 play, the Flyers prevailed at home, defeating Snow Canyon 34-28.

Snow Canyon jumped out to an early seven-point lead after a touchdown pass from Landon Frei to Jase Mendenhall at the halfway mark of the first quarter. However, Dixie would respond, scoring a touchdown to end the first quarter on a Keaton Schweizer three-yard run.

“Yeah, it’s just a battle every time we play those guys,” Dixie head coach Blaine Monkres said. “They bring their A game, and they give us trouble on offense and on defense, so it’s always a tough battle. I knew it was going to be tonight.”

Snow Canyon scored early in the second half after a 47-yard touchdown pass from Frei to Kyle Stuart, but Dixie would once again score on the next drive on a Reggie Graff 29-yard touchdown run. With the missed point after attempt, the score was 14-13 in favor of the Warriors.

Dixie’s defense stopped the Warriors two times before the half, with the Flyer scoring two touchdowns of their own, moving the score to 27-14 at the half.

The second half started slow, with neither team scoring until late in the quarter, when Braxton Hickman from Snow Canyon recovered a fumble and ran it back for the touchdown. Monkres said there was some miscommunication going on for the Flyers.

“We just muffed up a play somehow, I don’t know if we got a bad signal or what,” Monkres said. “That’s on me if we’re not communicating well, I’m the one doing the communicating. We just got confused, and that was my bad sending the wrong signal.”

The momentum looked like it had shifted in favor of Snow Canyon.

“We knew if we could get momentum then tables would kind of turn because they were the favorite team,” Frei said. “If we got momentum we knew it was anybody’s game, and that was the goal.”

In the second half, Snow Canyon recovered a Dixie fumble and ran it back for a touchdown. After the shift in momentum, Dixie would respond with a TD midway through the fourth, which proved to be the winning touchdown, as Snow Canyon scored a TD late, but the final was 34-28 in favor of Dixie.

Snow Canyon coach Mike Esplin said the game was played as expected.

“It’s what we expected, we just needed to win the game. The game was actually a little higher scoring then I thought,” Esplin said. “We were more consistent for four quarters. A lot of the teams we play, if we give that same effort, we win.”

Next Friday, Dixie travels to play Crimson Cliffs at Hurricane, while Snow Canyon hosts Pine View.

— written by Ryne Williams

Desert Hills 40, Hurricane 25

At Desert Hills, the Thunder defeated Hurricane 40-25. The game started off slow, with only one touchdown in the first quarter, but the second quarter saw an offensive explosion from both teams.

Hurricane was the first team to score in the second quarter, with a Brock Starley 25-yard pass to Bubba Moore, but Desert Hills would score three straight touchdowns, all involving Desert Hills quarterback Logan Wilstead. Hurricane scored one last time before the half on a Britton Stratton run, and the score was 27-13 at halftime.

Hurricane was the only team to score in the third, holding the Desert Hills offense to no scoring drives. The Hurricane touchdown came on another Stratton run, making the score 27-19 in favor of Desert Hills.

The Thunder fumbled the ball late in the third quarter, and Hurricane was able to recover it, and the Tigers capitalized on a 33-yard rushing touchdown by Ian Lambert. The Tigers were only down two points with about 11 minutes left on the clock.

From that point on, Desert Hills made quick work of Hurricane, scoring two more touchdowns before the six-minute mark, with a Wilstead pass to Mortensen and a Lousiale Taufa run, which would be the final touchdowns of the night.

Desert Hills’ defense was able to make some big stops late in the game as the Thunder held on to beat the Tigers. Desert Hills plays at Cedar City next Friday, while Hurricane travels to face Canyon View.

— written by Ryne Williams

Cedar 43, Canyon View 7

In Cedar City, cross-town rivals Canyon View and Cedar squared off on the Falcons’ home field, with the Reds pulling away in the second half for a 43-7 victory.

Cedar’s Kolbe Meek scored his team’s first four touchdowns, accumulating 227 total yards on those four scoring plays alone.

Meek’s first TD came on a 65-yard run on Cedar’s first play from scrimmage after the opening kickoff, with 11:40 left in the first quarter. Taz Chamberlain made the PAT kick, giving Cedar an early 7-0 lead.

Neither team scored again until Canyon View tied it up with 2:15 left in the second quarter, thanks to a 4-yard TD pass from Brisin Jake to Rayce Martinez. 

Right before that play, the Falcons had tried a field goal that was blocked, but Cedar committed a penalty on the play, giving Canyon View another chance.

However, the 7-7 tie score was short-lived as just under one minute later, Meek hit paydirt again, catching a pass from quarterback Jaron Garrett and taking it to the end zone for a 74-yard score, giving the Reds a 14-7 halftime cushion.

In the second half, Cedar pulled out the stops, scoring four more touchdowns and recording a defensive safety. Meek caught two more long passes from Garrett for scores in the third quarter, from 43 yards and 45 yards out, respectively.

Early in the fourth quarter, Cedar fumbled the ball away deep in Canyon View territory, with the Falcons taking over on their own 11-yard line. However, three plays later, Cedar’s Tanner Esplin ran back an interception for a pick-six TD, padding the lead to 34-7.

Then, with 4:15 remaining, Canyon View quarterback Jake was nearly sacked in the end zone. Although he managed to get rid of the ball, referees called intentional grounding and awarded a two-point safety to Cedar, making it 36-7.

On the ensuing possession, Reds capped off their big night with a 20-yard TD run by Benjamin Ellis.

During the postgame celebration, Cedar’s players took possession of the ceremonial “Pick,” which has resided in Canyon View’s trophy case since the Falcons won the rivalry game 27-14 on Cedar’s home field last year.

Cedar head coach Josh Bennett said he and his coaching staff challenged the players at halftime.

“We weren’t really weren’t happy with how we were playing (in the first half),” Bennett said. “I think defensively we were playing well. We had some great efforts and made some stops. We just made some adjustments. Our coaches did a good job with that and just challenged their efforts and their heart.”

Meek said he and his teammates were motivated by the pep talk.

“We took the game plan and we knew what we were going to do from the second we left our locker room,” Meek said, adding, “We didn’t want to show mercy. We got trashed talked for the past year about last year, so we came out and just showed no mercy.”

Next Friday, Cedar hosts Desert Hills at 7 p.m. while Canyon View hosts Hurricane.

— written by Jeff Richards

Pine View 49, Crimson Cliffs 7

On a neutral field at Hurricane High, the Pine View Panthers rolled to an easy win over the Crimson Cliffs Mustangs. The Panthers outscored the Mustangs 14-0 in each of the first three quarters, with quarterback Macloud Crowton tossing five TD passes. The Panthers added one more score in the fourth quarter, on yet another Crowton TD pass, this one to Izaiah Moten, his third receiving touchdown of the game. Crowton completed 18-of-28 passes for 374 yards passing. Crimson Cliffs finally broke the shutout with a TD pass in the final minute.

Pine View improved to 3-0 in region play with the win, while the Mustangs dropped to 1-2. Next Friday, the Panthers play at Snow Canyon, while Crimson Cliffs hosts Dixie, with that game also scheduled to be played on Hurricane’s home field.

— written by Jeff Richards

Region 9 football standings (as of Sept. 14)

1. Dixie 3-0 (4-1)
2. Pine View 3-0 (3-2)
3. Desert Hills 2-1 (2-3)
4. Cedar City 1-2 (2-3)
5. Snow Canyon 1-2 (2-3)
6. Crimson Cliffs 1-2 (1-4)
7. Hurricane 1-2 (1-4)
8. Canyon View 0-3 (0-5)

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