In addition to the usual features, this week’s edition includes the top-10 most-played rivalries and the longest winning streaks for every current football-playing school.
Defending Region Champs
This week, Regions 1 and 4 in Class 5A, along with all the 4A and 3AA regions, join 1A and 2A in league competition. Class 3A starts region play next week and Regions 2 and 3 won’t see league games until Week 6.
This season, several teams try to extend their string of consecutive region championships. Juan Diego has won 10 straight while Hurricane and San Juan have claimed five in a row. Lone Peak is a four-time defending region champ.
Duchesne, Manti, Maple Mountain, Olympus and Stansbury have captured back-to-back region titles.
Historically, only Millard (12 straight from 1949-60) and Dixie (11 straight from 1966-76) have longer streaks than Juan Diego.
Strong Starts
Salem Hills continues its best-ever start at 3-0 while Desert Hills has equaled its 3-0 starts of 2009 and 2010.
A few other teams are off to their best starts in several years. Grantsville hasn’t opened the season with three victories since 1999. With a win at Juab, the Cowboys will be 4-0 for the first time since an 8-0 start in 1992.
Grand plays at upset-minded South Sevier – last week the Rams’ James Collins drilled a 30-yard field goal as time expired to stun San Juan for the first time in 21 games going back to 1980. A Grand County triumph gives the Red Devils their first 4-0 start since 2006.
Should Springville defeat archrival Spanish Fork, these Red Devils will be 4-0 for the first time since winning their first 10 games in 2004.
Nail-biters
A cliffhanger – a non-overtime game decided by a team scoring on the final play – is unusual, such as South Sevier’s upset of San Juan just mentioned. Typically, any given season sees just two or three.
But Roy has achieved something almost unheard of: winning cliffhangers over consecutive weeks. Against Weber, Ben Aikuli hit a 33-yard field goal as time expired to lift the Royals to a 17-14 victory on Aug. 30.
Then last week, Roy trailed Fremont 12-7 with the ball at the Silver Wolves’ 44. Tyler Skidmore heaved a Hail Mary toward the end zone. A defender batted the ball away from two hopeful receivers, but unintentionally directed it into the arms of an alert Justin Weaver, who dashed three yards to the end zone for the 13-12 win. (The exciting play – for all but Fremont fans – can be seen on YouTube under “The Plain City Prayer.”)
More Roy
After Duchesne’s record-setting 37-game win streak, Roy enjoys the next longest current streak at four games, followed by 19 other teams which have 3-0 records this season.
Also, contrary to last week’s edition, Roy doesn’t lead the list of teams that haven’t shut out an opponent in several years. The Royals blanked Fremont 26-0 just last year. Lehi has gone the longest without shutting out an opponent (2004), followed by Murray (2005).
Record Setters and Notable Week 3 Performances
Football fans saw two state records set in East’s win over Jordan last week.
East established a single-game rushing record, running for 640 yards. That eclipses the previous record of 614 held by Park City in a 2007 game against Uintah.
East and Jordan combined for 1,316 total yards, another record. That surpasses the 1,216 combined yards in a 2011 game between Cottonwood and West Jordan.
The Leopards also racked up the second-most total offense with 804 yards. Beaver holds the record of 833 set in 1965 in a 71-0 thrashing of Wasatch Academy.
East standout Ula Tolutau alone ran for 321 yards, which ranks 25th all-time.
Despite the loss, Jordan QB Austin Kafentzis amassed 370 yards of total offense to raise his career total over the 10,000-yard mark. He’s vaulted into second place all-time with 10,057, trailing Alex Kuresa (Mountain Crest, 2007-10) by 2,860 yards.
Logan’s Taylor Compton caught six passes to jump into eighth place in career receptions with 139.
High-powered Teams
The season is still young, but observers usually expect to see such teams as Jordan, Logan or San Juan leading the state in margin of victory. However, this season, Grand and Riverton are the early leaders. Grand averages over 50 points per game, winning by an average of 38.7 ppg. Riverton is winning its contests by a 34.3-point average.
Shutouts
Last week, Timpanogos suffered its first shutout since 2006 after scoring in a school-record 68 consecutive games. Northridge didn’t score any points in a game for the first time since 2009 and for just the second time since the 2000 season.
Undefeated/Winless Matchups
A couple of big region openers pair unbeaten teams: Davis at Syracuse in Region 1 and Woods Cross at East in Region 5. Also, Beaver at South Summit, both 3-0, meet in a non-region 2A contest.
Three more games pit winless teams: Carbon at North Sanpete, Corner Canyon at Mountain View and Hillcrest at West Jordan.
First-time Pairings (10)
Four first-time matchups include at least one Utah County team: Corner Canyon at Mountain View, Herriman at Lone Peak, Pleasant Grove at Maple Mountain and Skyline at Timpanogos.
Another four involve out-of-state opponents: Copper Hills vs. Vanden (Fairfield, Calif.) in Cour D’Alene, Idaho; Manti hosting Shelley (Idaho); Alta vs. Allentown (N.J.); and Jordan vs. Bergen Catholic (Oradell, N.J) – those last two contests held in the Xfinity Challenge at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday.
For Copper Hills, it marks just the second time in its 19-year history that the Grizzlies have faced a non-Utah team. In 1999, CH defeated Chapparal (Las Vegas) 34-26 in Sin City.
Also Granger invades Morgan and Summit visits North Summit for the first time.
Most-Played Rivalries (min. 50 games)
Spanish Fork and Springville renew their feud for the 87th time. The Dons have captured the last two, narrowing the Red Devils’ lead to 42-41-3.
Box Elder battles Weber for the 73rd time, with a commanding 51-18-3 series margin.
Logan and Ogden face off for the 68th time in a series last contested in 2010. The Grizzlies lead 37-26-4.
Getting Reacquainted
Hurricane vs. Payson is a rare combination – the Lions won a pair in 1955 and ’56. So is Provo vs. Wasatch – they met back in 1928 (the Bulldogs won) and again in 1950 (the Wasps prevailed).
Highland and Kearns battled in 1987, when the Rams won, and in ’88, when the Cougars returned the favor.
More recently, Murray defeated Orem the last time these teams met, in 2006, but the Tigers lead the short series 4-2…. Kanab last played Monticello in 2006 and holds a dominant 14-2 edge in the series…. Delta creamed Judge 41-7 in their only previous encounter, a first-round playoff game in 2009.
Since splitting Lehi’s student body in 2009, Westlake and the Pioneers have played just twice – in ’09 and ’10. The Thunder defeated its parent school both times…. Bingham has taken six straight from Hunter to bump the Miners’ series lead to 12-6. They clashed in a 5A first-round game in 2010, but haven’t met during the regular season since 2008.
Other Game Notes
Pine View has grabbed three in a row over Snow Canyon to increase the Panthers’ series lead to 11-8…. Cedar won its first four games with Desert Hills, but the Thunder have started a comeback, winning a 2011 state semifinal and throttling the Redmen 42-14 last year.
Richfield holds a 21-17 series advantage over Emery as they square off for the 39th time. The Spartans have won two straight and 11 of the last 12 in the series, although they didn’t meet from 2001-08…. Bonneville doubles up on Sky View 22-11-1 as they meet for the 35th time.
Mountain Crest leads Roy 12-2, but since they first met in 1997, Roy has never been 3-0 and MC 0-3 heading into the fourth week of the season…. South Summit and Beaver have battled 15 times in postseason, but only twice during the regular season – in 1987 and ’88. The Wildcats have a slim 9-8 edge over the Beavers.
The Cyprus-West series includes annual meetings since 1993. The Pirates prevailed last year to snap the Panthers’ six-game series winning streak and cut West’s margin to 18-9 overall.
Milestone Games
Davis, with 553 victories, has pulled to within one win of all-time leader West. A Dart win over Syracuse on Thursday ties Davis with the Panthers for at least 24 hours.
East plays game number 900 all-time, while Bear River competes in its 800th and Hillcrest, its 500th. Snow Canyon is playing for the 200th time.
In the coaching ranks, congratulations to Fred Fernandes, who claimed his 100th career win last week. He’s coached at Northridge, Woods Cross and Roy.
Top-10 Rivalries
Last week’s edition highlighted the Traveling Trophies among Utah high school. This week’s provides a list of the most-played rivalries in the state, updated through Sept. 6:
Games Series – leader listed first, rivalry record, years
112 — East–West, 60–45–7, from 1914-2012
94 — Box Elder–Logan, 61–30–3, from 1919-2013
93 — Box Elder–Bear River, 66–25–2, from 1923-2013
93 — Spanish Fork–Payson, 46–43–4, from 1917-2013
92 — North Summit–Park City, 47–42–3, from 1926-2004
92 — Springville–Payson, 54–31–7, from 1909-2010
90 — Millard–Delta, 48–38–4, from 1926-2013
86 — Springville–Spanish Fork, 42–41–3, from 1920-2013
85 — Beaver–Kanab, 47–38, from 1950-2013
83 — No. Summit–So. Summit, 45–34–4, from 1942-2013
83 — Wasatch–Morgan, 50–31–2, from 1928-2012
Note that the only uninterrupted series among the Top 10 is Box Elder vs. Bear River.
Longest Win-Streaks
Since Duchesne has captured the state’s attention with its record 37-game winning streak, it’s timely to include the longest winning streaks for each school currently fielding a football team.
Alta – 16 (2007-08)
Altamont – 8 (1993)
American Fork – 11 (1961)
American Leadership – 2 (2013)
Bear River – 23 (2003-05)
Beaver – 15 (1973-74)
Ben Lomond – 9 (1966-67)
Bingham – 26 (2009-11)
Bonneville – 12 (1986)
Bountiful – 16 (2002-03)
Box Elder – 17 (1944-46)
Brighton – 13 (1982-83)
Canyon View – 5 (1998)
Carbon – 10 (1924)
Cedar – 10 (1998)
Clearfield – 8 (2003)
Copper Hills – 3 twice (2001; 2008)
Corner Canyon – 0
Cottonwood – 13 (2008)
Cyprus – 10 (2000)
Davis – 18 (1964-66)
Delta – 21 (1974-76)
Desert Hills – 6 (2011)
Diamond Ranch – 5 (2012)
Dixie – 23 (1973-75)
Duchesne -37 (2010 – current streak)
East – 24 (1955-57)
Emery County – 11 twice (1994-95; 1999)
Enterprise – 10 (2003)
Fremont – 11 (2010)
Grand County – 10 twice (1949-50; 1962)
Granger – 10 (1985)
Grantsville – 11 (1959-60)
Gunnison Valley – 7 (2004-05)
Herriman – 5 (2011)
Highland – 16 (1959-60)
Hillcrest – 10 (1983)
Hunter – 14 (2003)
Hurricane – 20 (2011-12)
Jordan – 20 (1946-49)
Juab – 12 (1997)
Juan Diego – 20 (2008-09)
Judge Memorial – 15 (1981-82)
Kanab – 13 (1974-75)
Kearns – 8 (1989)
Layton – 11 twice (1969; 2007)
Layton Christian – 5 (2011)
Lehi – 10 (1997)
Logan – 17 (1977-79)
Lone Peak – 14 (2011)
Manti – 16 (1999-2000)
Maple Mountain – 8 (2012)
Milford – 12 (1993-94)
Millard – 24 (1978-79)
Monticello – 16 (2001-02)
Monument Valley – 8 (2008-09)
Morgan – 16 (1997-98)
Mountain Crest – 11 (1991)
Mountain View – 10 (1999)
Murray – 14 (1954-55)
North Sanpete – 11 (2002)
North Sevier – 9 (1996)
North Summit – 17 (2007-08)
Northridge – 20 (2002-03)
Ogden – 12 twice (1958-59; 1965-66)
Olympus – 12 (1998)
Orem – 12 twice (1962; 1968)
Park City – 10 three times (1981; 2006; 2009)
Parowan – 8 (1989)
Payson – 10 (1958-59)
Pine View – 13 (2007)
Pleasant Grove – 24 (1954-57)
Provo – 10 (1987)
Rich – 28 (1994-97)
Richfield – 9 twice (1970; 1971)
Riverton – 8 (2010)
Roy – 11 (1974-75)
Salem Hills – 3 twice (2009; 2013-current streak)
San Juan – 30 (2009-11)
Sky View – 11 (2006)
Skyline – 23 (1998-2000)
Snow Canyon – 14 (1996-97)
South Sevier – 8 (2009)
South Summit – 11 twice (1984-85; ‘88-89)
Spanish Fork – 9 (2012)
Springville – 12 (1985)
Stansbury – 11 (2012)
Summit – 3 (2012)
Syracuse – 12 (2012)
Taylorsville – 5 (1999)
Timpanogos – 5 (2012)
Timpview – 36 (2006-09)
Tooele – 22 (1928-30)
Uintah – 11 (1994)
Union – 9 (1965)
Viewmont – 10 (1971-72)
Wasatch – 11 (1966)
Weber – 8 (1956)
West – 23 (1992-93)
West Jordan – 8 (1992)
Westlake – 6 (2010)
Whitehorse – 10 (2000-01)
Woods Cross – 6 (2012)
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