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CEDAR CITY — Beaver won its second straight 1A championship in a 43-22 showdown with the Kanab Cowboys Saturday.
Despite a tight first half, Beaver had the upper hand almost the entirety of the game. The Beavers never let the Cowboys have the lead and put on a clinic of their own.
"We all just came together as a team," senior Gage Raddon said. "All the seniors, we just wanted it more. We had such a good bond this year and the coaches, they were just all out."
The start of the game was back-and-forth in the truest sense of the term. On more than one occasion, the ball changed hands on three consecutive plays.
Beaver landed the first blow by holding Kanab to a three-and-out series, and followed it with a touchdown. Quarterback Bodie Wheatley connected with Davin Orton for a 59-yard score to start the offensive showcase.
The Beavers forced a turnover on downs and made their way into the red zone where they faced a fourth down. A successful conversion let Wheatley break for the end zone himself, giving Beaver an early 14-0 edge.
The start of the second quarter also marked the start of the Cowboys' success. Kanab put together its first scoring drive, courtesy of a Brogun Virostko pass to Troy Federkeil, cutting the deficit in half.
Latimer Glover put the ball back in the Cowboys' hands by intercepting a pass from Wheatley. Kanab fumbled the ball to give it right back up, then Beaver committed a fumble of its own that was returned for a touchdown by Cooper Anderson. The 17-yard touchdown knotted the score at 14 and put Kanab in their best position of the game.
The Cowboys held the Beavers to a punt, but turned it over when Virostko was picked off by Orton. It set up the go-ahead score when Deegan Blackner secured a pitch from his quarterback and took it 11 yards to the end zone. Blackner contributed a successful 2-point conversion as well, putting Beaver up 22-14.
Beaver scored once more before the break with Maverick Albrecht recovering a Kanab fumble in the red zone and returning it for a 66-yard touchdown.
With a 29-14 lead, the Beavers tacked on another score by returning the half-opening kickoff for a touchdown. Blackner caught it inside the 10-yard line and outran the Cowboys for the 91-yard score.
Kanab finally answered on a deep pass from Virostko, reined in by Kash Kabonic for the touchdown. Hayden Gubler darted into the end zone for the 2-point conversion, and the score stood at 36-22. Trailing by 14, the Cowboys resorted to an on-side kick attempt.
The on-side kick let Beaver take possession at midfield, and in 12 seconds, the defending champions scored again. Wheatley found Raddon downfield, who reached over the Cowboy defender and brought in the pass, staying on his feet for a 54-yard score.
"I was just like, 'I gotta make a play right here,'" Raddon said. "I beat (the defender) then I had to come back, but I went up, grabbed it, and was like, 'I'm going to the house.' There was nothing stopping me."
Neither team scored in the fourth quarter, and Raddon's touchdown catch was allowed to shine as the exclamation point on the Beavers' championship victory.
