Kearns • Kearns, which is ranked in the top five in the state’s largest classification, aimed to prove it belonged in the Class 6A elite Thursday night.
Hold that thought, Cougars.
Although the game never got out of hand, Lone Peak controlled the non-region contest for almost the duration and outlasted the Cougars 42-24.
“We knew they were a really good team coming in, watching them on film,” Kearns coach Matt Rickards said. “They’re a state championship caliber team. There’s a reason they’ve been in the state championship game the last two seasons.”
The way Lone Peak (4-1) grabbed a grip on the contest was by leaning on the running of big junior Masen Wake.
LONE PEAK 42, KEARNS 24 <br>• Lone Peak entered ranked No. 3 and Kearns No. 4 in the Class 6A state rankings. <br>• Junior Masen Wake gains 163 yards, including 157 in the first half, to lead the Lone Peak offensive effort. <br>Kearns is paced by senior running back Sese Felila, who gains 154 yards.
Wake ran for 27 yards on his first carry, scored on a 19-yard run late in the opening quarter and had 157 yards at halftime. He only rushed four times in the second half and finished with 163 yards.
“We knew we could run on them,” Wake said. “We came out with chips on our shoulders. Next man up — that was our mentality this week. So that’s what we did.”
The Knights’ other running back, Kobe Freeman, finished with 68 yards and was the primary carrier after intermission.
Lone Peak moved the ball 63 yards in its first possession and topped the drive with a 5-yard run by Freeman. But Kearns, which had 154 yards rushing from Sese Felila, responded quickly and tied the score at 7-7 with a 39-yard run by quarterback Isaac Matua in the first quarter.
The game was tied at 14-14 early in the second when Knights quarterback Brock Jones found Brigham Trowbridge for a 15-yard pass. Separation for the visitors started to take place when Jones tossed a 20-yard TD to Cody Collins for a 28-14 lead with 6:03 left in the second.
“We felt we should have made some adjustments sooner,” said Rickards, who wasn’t necessarily talking about containing Wake.
“It was their left tackle [Lone Peak 6-foot-6 tackle Connor Pay]. He was just mowing us down,” Rickards said. “We had some lighter D-ends playing on him, so we had to switch some personnel around.”
Lone Peak its lead to 18 points in the third quarter when Jones tossed a 5-yard TD to Trowbridge.
Kearns didn’t get on the board in the second half until the 9:31 mark in the fourth quarter when Matua found Journey Buba for a 51-yard pass. But the Knights sewed up things on an 18-yard strike from Jones to Collins.
Pay “was huge because our right tackle was out with a strained leg, so we had to put a sophomore in. So we really focused on running to Connor’s side tonight,” Lone Peak coach Bart Brockbank said. “Kobe’s definitely our feature back, but with these guys, we went with a big back to start because of what we saw on film.
“He [Wake] has very good speed and good quickness for as big as he is. I mean, 6-1, 220, he’s a big back and hard to bring down. And he was a workhorse tonight.”
