High school football: Lone Peak shocks Corner Canyon as schools renew rivalry

Three weekends into the football season felt more like three months had already been played when Lone Peak welcomed Corner Canyon to Highland Friday. If not for the warm summer evening, it would have been hard to differentiate the Knights’ 28-21 victory over the Chargers from a November state tournament contest.

Corner Canyon entered the matchup touted as the best team in the state, coming off arguably the biggest regular season win in Utah high school football history last week when it took down nationally ranked IMG Academy out of Florida, but that did not bother the Knights.

“This team believes,” Lone Peak coach Bart Brockbank said about his squad following its upset win. “I thought maybe we’d have to do something extra to get them excited and everything, (but) they’re just all business.”

The Knights’ defense gave the Chargers the business throughout the night, with one of its biggest plays coming on the final snap of the game when junior defensive lineman Tag Zundel sacked Corner Canyon quarterback Helaman Casuga to give the Knights the victory.

The Chargers had inched their way into Lone Peak territory, getting a few good looks at the end zone before Zundel shut things down.

Zundel’s sack brought Lone Peak players and students spilling onto the field in a frenzied celebration which soon was accompanied by the stadium’s loudspeakers blaring championship tunes.

Still, Brockbank tried to keep things in perspective, telling his team after the game that this was only one of their goals.

“It’s not the championship,” the coach said. “Our goal’s the championship. It’s great to beat a team like this. They’re our rival. … They’ve had our number, we’ve had their number, so it’s great.

“It’s nice to be able to enjoy it and have it over the weekend, but we got to come back and we got to get ready for conference. You know, we don’t want a trap game.”

Lone Peak got off to a fast start, turning the Chargers over on just their second play from scrimmage. Moments later, the Knights’ offense found the end zone and then keep rolling the rest of the half.

Lone Peak did not punt once in the first half, scoring all 28 of its points before the break. The Knights capitalized on two consecutive Corner Canyon offside penalties in the red zone to keep their drive alive and score the game deciding touchdown with under 10 seconds to play in the second quarter.

Despite being kept off the board in the second half, the Lone Peak offense remained effective, managing the clock and keeping the ball from Corner Canyon.

“I was happy with the offense because we were moving the ball, taking time off the clock,” Brockbank said. “I just think that we got to work on finishing. … Outside of that, I was really pleased with our offense, how we moved. I think we dominated the line of scrimmage offensively.”

Corner Canyon never gave up though, scoring two touchdowns in each of the last two quarters before running out of time on the last drive that was marred by miscues.

The Chargers suffered more than just their first loss in over year, losing senior standout wide receiver Jerome Myles on their second possession to a knee injury.

Both schools will resume play next Friday at 7 p.m. Lone Peak will look to remain unbeaten when it travels to Mountain Ridge, while Corner Canyon will try to bounce back at home against Farmington.