South Jordan • The Bingham Miners scored first. They fought hard. They even incorporated a couple of effective trick plays.
But the Corner Canyon Chargers were like Thanos from “The Avengers” franchise: inevitable.
The Chargers remained undefeated on the season with a 42-20 win Friday over the Miners at Bingham High in a game televised nationally on ESPN.
“We feel super fortunate to be playing right now with the circumstances going on,” Chargers senior quarterback Jaxson Dart said. “This is a high school football player’s dream to play on ESPN. It was a great opportunity for us, and I think we lived it up pretty good.”
Signs at Bingham High stated face masks and social distancing were required to curb the spread of COVID-19. The announcer reminded the crowd several times to continue wearing masks and social distancing. Many in the crowd, however, were seen with masks under their chins or not wearing one at all.
Dart threw six touchdown passes in a game that felt closer at halftime than it eventually became. Corner Canyon allowed just one touchdown in the second half, and that came with just under three minutes left in the game.
Corner Canyon coach Eric Kjar said the team went back to basics on defense in the second half.
“We had kind of done a couple other different adjustments we had made coming in,” Kjar said. “Our coaches went back to more of our base stuff.”
Dart’s touchdown passes went to four different receivers. Dart said when he transferred from Roy High, he and the receivers went right to work with building their chemistry with 7-of-7 outings.
“We’ve had our chemistry down for a while now,” Dart said. “It feels really good to be out here to show everybody what we got.”
The first half went back and forth for all 24 minutes. It started with junior kicker Nate Chamberlain’s field goal from distance that pinged the crossbar and flipped in. That came after forcing Corner Canyon to punt on its first drive.
The Chargers answered, however, with a 10-yard touchdown pass from Dart to junior wide receiver Jett Meine for a 7-3 lead.
Bingham came back with a touchdown of its own on a drive that included consecutive fake punts on fourth downs. A Chargers penalty on fourth-and-5 out the Miners less than 3 yards away from the end zone, and junior running back Saia Lomu capitalized with a rushing touchdown to give the Miners the lead again.
It took less than 30 seconds for the Chargers to answer. Dart threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Talmage Handley to take back the lead at 14-10.
Chamberlain made another field goal less than three minutes before halftime. As the Miners set up for the kick, a Corner Canyon fan yelled, “It’s a fake!” — as though suffering PTSD from the two times Bingham faked a kick on fourth down.
The Chargers ended the half with another touchdown pass from Dart, this time throwing to senior wide receiver Noah Kjar. Corner Canyon led 21-13 at the half.
The Chargers were without senior running back Austin Bell, one their best players, due to a knee injury he suffered last week.
Senior wide receiver Isaiah Glasker scored Bingham’s final touchdown.
