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- Corner Canyon defeated Lehi 35-34 in overtime, advancing to a sixth consecutive 6A championship.
- Lehi missed three extra points, including a crucial one in overtime, sealing its loss.
- Junior quarterback Bronson Evans led Corner Canyon with key plays, including a game-tying pass in the final seconds of regulation.
SALT LAKE CITY — Corner Canyon won last year's 6A semifinal against Lehi by 39 points.
Thursday's rematch at Rice-Eccles Stadium was a little closer.
The odds seemed stacked against the Chargers late in the game, down 28-21, with second-stringers at nearly every offensive position leading the way to try and win or tie the game with 3:28 remaining.
Junior quarterback Bronson Evans — who took over for injured Helaman Casuga midway through the regular season — managed to get the team into the red zone, but things looked grim on fourth-and-2 with less than 30 seconds left in the game.
Evans scanned the field and found his man, Kai Meza, at the back of the end zone for the fellow junior's second score of the game, and Corner Canyon elected for the extra point to tie the score at 28-28 with 19 seconds remaining.
"I just had to look off the safety, come back and rip it," Evans said of the pass. "It was pretty scary, but Kai came down with that. He's a stud."
Corner Canyon junior quarterback Bronson Evans talks about the win over Lehi and moving on to the Utah 6A championship game pic.twitter.com/8sH0cggMo3
— Caleb Turner (@calebturner23) November 14, 2024
Lehi took a knee to send the game to overtime, where both teams scored touchdowns on their first drives.
A second round of extra time seemed imminent until Lehi's extra point veered a little too far to the left and bounced off the upright and out, giving the Chargers a 35-34 win for their sixth straight trip to the 6A state championship game.
"Huge for us, but, you know, it's a tough way to lose games," Corner Canyon head coach Eric Kjar said. "I love Ed Larson, their head coach; he's a good dude. Obviously, I want to win that game, and it bounced out, so it was fun to see it go out, but our kids battled."
The doink off the upright was Lehi's third failed extra point of the game, with two misses and one blocked kick by the Chargers. Senior signal caller Jett Niu completed 31-of-42 passes for the Pioneers, including four touchdown passes to junior Legend Glasker in an impressive game that eventually came up short.
Junior running back Weston Briggs led the way for Corner Canyon on the day with 160 rushing yards on 28 attempts. Evans accounted for all but one touchdown for the Chargers, which King Cooper ran in during the overtime period.
Corner Canyon will face the winner of Skyridge and Lone Peak in next week's championship game at Rice-Eccles.
