What a Game

I just got home after covering the West Jordan at Olympus football game. It was the best game I've seen all year. West Jordan is 3-0, but Oly has its spread offense going.

Good game for everyone, especially since not everyone can win. I sent my game story to the Deseret News already. If you'd like to read it, here it is:

By Bruce Smith
For the Deseret News

West Jordan and Olympus each learned a lot about themselves Friday night, while playing an entertaining game in front of a near capacity-crowd.

But only West Jordan is 3-0.

The Jaguars drove 80 yards in less than three minutes to nip Olympus 35-28 in a non-region battle.

Quarterback Jace Rogers hit his giant tight end – D.J. Tialavea – on a 5-yard scoring pass that ended up being the winning points.

“I knew they gave us too much time,” said Rogers, explaining how he felt after Olympus tied the game with 3:25 remaining. “We were keeping our cool.”

West Jordan coach Mike Morgan couldn’t be prouder. He wouldn’t answer – but only smiled - when asked how he felt about being 3-0.

“These kids overcame adversity to win this game,” he finally said. “We responded after (Olympus) scores. We came up with the plays.”

There was plenty of adversity – on both sides. West Jordan rushed for 352 yards, but gave almost half that back in penalties.

One penalty – an illegal block – came when Tyson Udy intercepted a pass in the end zone and ran 100 yards for a touchdown. The block was behind the play and likely would not have affected Udy’s run.

Olympus coach Mark Smith also noticed the ups and downs. But despite the loss, he was pleased the Titans’ have shown improvement in each of their three games.

The Titans’ spread offense put up a season-high point total. Olympus, which trailed 20-7 at halftime, came out in the second half and quarterback Spencer Harris hit sophomore Carter Young on a 64-yard touchdown pass on the first play.

Shortly afterward, Olympus recovered a Jaguars’ fumble. Then Harris tossed a short pass to basketball star Spencer Hille to give the Titans their first lead.

“We hit on maybe four cylinders in our first two games,” said Smith, who couldn’t help but smile despite the loss. “But tonight we hit on 5½. I was very proud of the improvement we made.

“Preaseason (non-region) is over, and we’ve made progress. I’m looking forward to doing more of this in region.”

Olympus starts Region 6 play next week at home against Cyprus.

On this night, though, the Titans turned things around in the third quarter. Their two quick scores seemed to surprise the visiting Jaguars, and West Jordan took a while to recover.

Finally, the Jaguas started riding the back of running backs Damien Maestes, who had 126 yards on 28 carries, and Brandt Henslee, who added 110 yards on 11 attempts.

The Jaguars moved the ball and finally scored on a 5-yard run by Maestes. West Jordan then added a two-point conversion on one of its favorite plays - a short toss to Tialavea - who caught five passes on the night.

Olympus retaliated, taking advantage of two pass interference penalties, and tied the game when Hille caught his second touchdown pass, but there was still 3:25 left in the game.

Maestes did most of the damage, but was helped by Henslee and the shifty Devon Paraso, who added 60 yards on the ground. Finally, with Oly’s defense confused and intent on stopping the run, Harris found Tialavea for the winning score with 37 seconds left.

“We have a lot of weapons with that offense,” Morgan said. “We proved that in the Mountain View game (a 40-37 win last week).”