The Stansbury football team made it all the way to the Class 3AA semifinals before running into an opponent it couldn’t hang with.
The Stallions’ season came to an end with a 49-14 loss to Desert Hills on Thursday at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, with the Thunder scoring 35 unanswered points in the final 37 minutes of the contest.
“That’s the best team we’ve played all year,” Stansbury coach Clint Christiansen said of Desert Hills. “They’re a good bunch. They turned the tide and they have a lot more depth. They have a lot of horses.”
Stansbury (9-3) hung with the Thunder (9-2) early on, drawing first blood on Casey Roberts’ 60-yard catch and run off a screen pass from Mitch McIntyre to take a 6-0 lead on the Stallions’ first possession of the game. Nephi Sewell’s 21-yard touchdown run on a fourth-down play gave Desert Hills a 7-6 lead, and Brock Parry scored from 3 yards out to put the Thunder ahead 14-6 with 3:22 left in the opening quarter.
The Stallions had an answer. Matt McIntyre ripped off a 45-yard run to get Stansbury to the Desert Hills 33-yard line, and McCoy Didericksen scored on a 27-yard scamper to draw the Stallions even. But that was the last time the Stallions saw the end zone, and the Thunder began to exert their will on the Stansbury defense with their running attack and size advantage in the trenches.
“They had some big plays,” Stansbury senior Clayton Stanworth said. “We just couldn’t stop them.”
A 70-yard pass from Quinn Kiser to Logan Hokanson set up Sewell’s second touchdown run of the game just before the first quarter ended, and a short punt on Stansbury’s ensuing possession led to Sewell’s 28-yard scoring run less than three minutes later.
“Somewhere in the first quarter, we made a few mistakes and let them get ahead,” Stansbury senior Ryan Moody said.
The Thunder then went to the air to pad their lead. Kiser hit Marco Jordan for a 72-yard touchdown pass over the middle on Desert Hills’ next offensive play to make it 35-14. Kiser and Jordan connected for a 19-yard TD pass in the third quarter, and Kiser scored on a 4-yard run to cap the scoring with just under five minutes left.
“They’re so much bigger than we are and it’s hard to match that,” Christiansen said. “That’s just the way it went, but you know what? We had a great season. It’s been a hell of a ride and I wouldn’t change it for anything. Of course, you want to move on, but it is what it is. We had a great year and I’m proud of our boys.”
Sewell ran for 147 yards and three scores on 11 carries for the Thunder, who rushed for 267 yards on 34 carries as a team. Kiser was 10-for-19 for 222 yards and a pair of scores through the air, with Hokanson catching three balls for 94 yards and Jordan making two catches for 91 yards.
“We’re the first team [from Stansbury] to come [to Rice-Eccles],” Moody said. “We can’t focus on the negative. We did something no one else could do, and we’ve just got to remember that.”
Didericksen led Stansbury with 103 yards on 15 rushes. Matt McIntyre had 96 yards on 16 carries and was 3-for-6 passing for 69 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Moody, Dallin Brooks and Conner McKay led the Stallions with seven tackles each. Alix Vaefaga-Taukeiaho had six, while Stanworth and fellow senior Emilio Jaramillo each had five.
“Our goal was to get here and we did,” Stanworth said. “You never want to end on a loss. The teams after us shouldn’t want to just get here – they should want to get here and take state.”
The Thunder advanced to face either Dixie or Pine View in next week’s Class 3AA state championship game.