Frampton, Parkinson combine to lead first-year Skyridge to inaugural win


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LEHI — Wyatt Parkinson and Cody Frampton have played together all their lives, but they knew they would never get another chance to play in the first game in Skyridge football history like they did Thursday night.

They made the most of it.

Frampton threw five touchdown passes — three of them to Parkinson — to help the Falcons top fellow newcomer Ridgeline, 33-14 on the opening night of the 2016 high school football season.

“We definitely have a chemistry together,” said Frampton, who played receiver at Lehi a year ago. “He knows where to go in different situations. I just put the ball there and let him make plays. He’s a stud.”

Frampton found Parkinson for a 71-yard touchdown pass on the first drive of the game to put the Falcons (1-0) up early, but the RiverHawks (0-1) responded with Kody Pope’s 4-yard TD grab from Payton Thomas to even the score at 7-7 after one quarter.

The magic really happened in the second stanza, though. Parkinson capped a nearly four-minute drive with his second touchdown of the game, and Frampton found Nathan Upham with a 39-yard score with 2:42 remaining in the half to go up 19-7 at halftime.

Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

The defense also chipped in, including Parkinson, whose shoestring tackle against Cody Olsen with about four minutes remaining saved a near-surefire touchdown in the win.

“Those guys are good athletes,” Skyridge coach Jon Lehman said of his star duo. “We have high expectations for them, and we expect them to produce.”

Frampton found Parkinson on a bubble screen less than five minutes into the second half, and the senior barreled 56 yards into the end zone in the third quarter. But Ridgeline responded less than 30 seconds later when Sam Weda took Thomas’ short pass 80 yards for a score to pull the RiverHawks within 12.

But Frampton put the game away with a a long drive and a 14-yard TD strike to Alex Palmer. The senior rolled out of the pocket, and heaved a bomb into the back of the end zone, where the ball met Palmer's outreached hand for the final margin.

The Falcon defense did the rest.

“The defense was huge,” Frampton said. “They gave us the opportunities to score with their big stops. Big props to the defense.”

The game pitted a pair of first-year schools in Lehi’s Skyridge and Millville’s Ridgeline against each other in the first regular-season contest of the season. The Falcon supporters showed up en masse, too, pouring out of the home grandstand and spilling orange into the surrounding bowl overlooking the field.

It was a sight that even surprised Lehman.

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“I thought it was going to be a couple of years before we got the crowd full and people on the (hill),” the first-year head coach said. “But it was a quarter to (seven), and it filled.

“There’s a good buzz. A lot of people want to see this school succeed.”

Ridgeline continues its preseason filled with 4A schools at Provo next Friday, and Skyridge plays at West. Both games are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. MT.

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Sean Walker

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