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HERRIMAN — A week after receiving national recognition for its dramatic win over Corner Canyon, Lone Peak was off to a rocky start in a road test at Mountain Ridge Friday night.
The Knights trailed 10-3 in the second quarter and struggled to find its footing offensively.
To shake off the Sentinels — and maintain its newly-minted No. 17 ranking in the Max Preps national poll — Lone Peak got creative with its offensive play-calling.
The Knights called a trio of plays that left Mountain Ridge's defense off guard and resulted in touchdowns, providing the necessary boost in a 38-13 victory.
The first big play came in the second quarter when Lone Peak (4-0) quarterback Kepa Niumeitolu used Mountain Ridge's high-pressure look against itself, by finding tight end Ike Staley on a designed screen pass for a 34-yard touchdown.
Moments later, the Knights shocked the Sentinels (2-2) by running a nearly identical screen play, only this time to Luke Christensen, who broke loose for a 59-yard touchdown to give the Knights a 17-10 lead before the half — a lead they never relinquished.
"(Mountain Ridge) was just sending so many guys, and so we felt like we could get them to back off a little bit," Lone Peak head coach Bart Brockbank said. "We didn't necessarily think we'd get touchdowns on both plays."
Brockbank didn't expect his team to have a post-Corner Canyon swoon, saying his players practiced well leading up to the Mountain Ridge game. But on Friday, he thought his team started tentatively, and it showed on the field.
Niumeitolu opened the game 1-of-6 passing, and the offense struggled to move the sticks, while special teams fumbled a punt return. The Sentinels held much of the early momentum, capped by a 5-yard touchdown run from quarterback Wyatt Bingham to take the lead.
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Coming off a blowout loss to Davis, Mountain Ridge started the game with intensity and — aside from the pair of screen plays — outplayed the Knights in the first half. Bingham found ways to extend drives with his legs, and the Sentinels' defense tested Niumeitolu.
"We had a shot there," Mountain Ridge coach Mike Meifu said. "The end score doesn't show how much our kids battled. I'm proud of the effort they put in today."
That fight continued in the third quarter when Mountain Ridge held Lone Peak to fourth-and-10, and looked poised to retake possession trailing 17-10.
But a third gut-punch of a play-call pushed the game fully in the Knights' favor.
A double-reverse handoff in the backfield put the ball in the hands of Staley, who suddenly tossed the ball to an open Niumeitolu, who raced into the end zone for a 28-yard receiver-to-quarterback touchdown.
"The boys have been working on that for a while," Brockbank said. "They've been wanting to run it so bad, and so we thought maybe it would get them juiced. I'm not a huge fan of trick plays, but the boys were excited, and they wanted to run it, and they were begging for it, so it was a good play."
With a 24-10 cushion, the Knights defense did the heavy lifting to close the game, including a tackle for loss by Junior Tahi to force Mountain Ridge to kick a field goal in the fourth quarter, and a pick six by Jayden Mayberry with 2:10 to play.
In total, the Knights recorded four interceptions, with the other three coming from Tevita Mounga, Toa Tanuvasa and Max Hamblin.
"Defensively, I thought we turned it on, got real stout real quick. … I thought the (Mountain Ridge) game plan was pretty good," Brockbank said. "They were going to try to be patient, try to hit some quick stuff on us, and maybe try to run it on us and keep our defense on the field for a long time, maybe wear us down. But the defense stepped up, and did really well."
