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ROY — Everyone in Regions 1 and 5 knows that Roy High senior running back/athlete Robert Young is a defensive coordinator's nightmare. He'd already racked up 356 total yards on 11 touches across rushing, receiving and returning in Roy's first two games.
In a rivalry game against Weber Friday, Young showed all of that explosiveness and ability, and then some.
Young totaled five touchdowns in the Royals' 48-34 win over the Warriors. Of those five touchdowns, four were rushing scores (12, 19, 74 and 21 yards) with three from the Wildcat formation.
The 5-foot-7 running back's most eye-popping score, however, was a perfect spiral touchdown pass that he threw to Isaiah Morris in the corner of the end zone from the Wildcat formation.
"I'm a QB at heart, to be honest, so I can throw the ball a little," Young said, smiling.
"He's unreal, man," Roy head coach Chris Solomona said. "He's been our MVP since his sophomore season and today he showed why. He can do it all."
The win did two things for Roy ahead of next week's Region 5 opener against Clearfield.
First, the Royals are 3-0 with all three wins by double digits. Second, the stained-glass traveling trophy between the two Weber County rivals, The Shield, stays at Roy High for another year.
The Royals took command early, but Weber (2-1) never trailed by more than two scores.
Roy scored on its first drive with a 12-yard touchdown run from quarterback Dru Gardner, then Young walked in his first touchdown of the night for a 12-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Weber hit back with a 19-yard scoring pass from freshman Carter Payne to junior Dyson Parker on third down, one of Parker's three touchdowns. Gardner found Morris for a 62-yard scoring pass, followed by a 2-point conversion, to put the Royals up 20-7.
Brock Dean caught an 11-yard TD pass for Weber, finishing a 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive that cut Roy's lead to 20-14 at halftime.
Again, the Royals scored with a Young TD run (19 yards) to go ahead 28-13.
"Our line did so good, we just bullied them all night," Young said.
Weber, again, responded with a 13-play, 80-yard drive — including two false start penalties — that ended with a 6-yard Parker TD run (28-21).
The next drive was also a 13-play, 80-yard drive for Roy, ending with Young's perfect touchdown pass to Morris. Young ran in the 2-point conversion for a 36-21 lead with 11:48 left in the fourth quarter.
But the Royals just couldn't put Weber away. Payne found Tyson Higgs for a 78-yard pass play down the left sideline, setting up Parker's 1-yard touchdown run that cut the lead to 36-27.
Things got interesting when Weber's Brock Dean picked off Gardner on the next drive, and the Warriors turned it into points through a Payne touchdown pass to Ian Elmore to make it a 2-point game with 5:31 left.
"It's very exhausting because you can't get comfortable in rivalry games. Because everybody, no matter what, you can have a chance to win the game," Young said.
And likewise, Weber just couldn't get another stop when it needed to. On the second play of Roy's next drive, Young ran around the right side out of the Wildcat formation for a 74-yard score.
Roy's defense secured a fourth-down stop on the next drive, and Young scored a 21-yarder on the first play of the ensuing drive for the final scoring margin. While the Royals start region games next week, Weber has non-region games against Wasatch and Granger remaining before Region 1 play begins.
