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SALEM — When Salem Hills senior co-captain Cooper Smith takes the field, he does just about everything for the Skyhawks.
He catches passes at wide receiver. He makes plays at safety. He takes pride in his role as a long snapper, and — at one point — he even kicked field goals for Salem Hills before a minor injury pulled him from that role.
With a final game at home via a Class 4A play-in game against Region 8 rival Maple Mountain on Tuesday, Smith had one more chance to show what he can do.
This time, it was his defense that made the difference.
Smith had three interceptions — including the game-sealing turnover on Maple Mountain's final offensive drive — to help the Skyhawks hold off the Golden Eagles 7-6 and advance to face Highland in the opening round of the 4A state football tournament.
"It felt great," said Smith, who also had three catches for 38 of Salem Hills' 235 yards of offense. "It's my last game here, and it was good to get it like that."
Smith's first interception on Maple Mountain quarterback Austin Edwards ended the second quarter, then Skyhawk starting signal caller Tristan Swensen found tight end Zach Simmons for a 10-yard touchdown strike to give the home team a 7-3 lead at halftime.
The do-everything senior picked off Edwards again on the Eagles' first drive of the second half, pulling down a pass with 6:08 remaining in the third quarter to stop a Maple Mountain drive. Smith also picked off Edwards on the Eagles' next drive, but a pass interference call against the Skyhawk defense with 1:39 left in the quarter nullified the interception.
"I just sat back, read the quarterback, saw where he was going to throw the ball," Smith said. "I sat back in my zone, saw where he was going to throw it, and read the ball."
After a scoreless first quarter that included a Salem Hills' blocked field goal with 1:25 left in the opening period, Maple Mountain (8-4) took the early lead on Tanner Dayton's 53-yard field goal with 11:08 to go until halftime.
Swensen led the Skyhawks (5-6) on the lone touchdown drive of the game in the second quarter before leaving at halftime with an undisclosed injury suffered in the first quarter. His replacement, junior Kaden Kunz, completed just 1-of-3 passes for two yards, but also helped manage the game with 31 rushing yards on 13 carries.
Junior running back Vili Wolfgram paced the Skyhawks' ground attack with 61 yards on 14 rushes.
But the Eagles had a chance to tie late in the fourth when the Eagles appeared to go for the win on fourth and 5 with 8:06 left on the clock.
Instead, Salem Hills coach Joel Higginson called timeout, made an adjustment, and the Eagles took a 21-yard field goal from Dayton to pull within 7-6 with half the quarter left to play.
"They were going for it, and we didn't like the look we had defensively," Higginson said. "We had a feeling before the play they would run that sweep to the left. Just before the snap, we called timeout and got another guy out there, and it worked for us to give (Maple Mountain) three instead of seven."
The two teams finished the season against each other last Friday, when Salem Hills earned a dominating 22-0 win at Maple Mountain to close out the regular season.
"I felt like they came out and their intensity was much better," Higginson said. "It was a much more physical game than it was Friday. Everything was on the line for both of us, and we kind of knew it. Hat's off to Brad and those guys; they did a great job and pressed us for everything we had. I thought it was a hard-fought game on every side, with a lot of mistakes. We've got to clean those up."
This time, the Eagles' defense held the Skyhawks to one scoring drive, and both teams combined for 15 penalties.
It proved to be enough, thanks in large part to Smith, whom Higginson called "one of the kids I will miss the most."
"He never says a thing in practice, but all he does is make plays," Higginson added. "He'll be the most quiet guy in the locker room after this game. He's the most humble guy, but he's a 4.0 student, an unbelievable athlete, and he's such a good kid.
"You can't replace a guy like Cooper Smith. He's phenomenal."
"I just dropped back in my zone in the quarters, and I knew they did a lot of dropbacks and throwing on the run," Smith said. "So I saw the receivers and tried to split the difference in the receivers and make a play on the ball."
Second Quarter MM — Tanner Dayton, 53-yard FG SH — Zach Simmons 10-yard pass from Tristan Swensen (Isaac Johnson kick)Fourth Quarter MM — Tanner Dayton, 21-yard FGFinal: Salem Hills 7, Maple Mountain 6
Edwards completed 5-of-20 passes for 86 yards and three interceptions for Maple Mountain, which started Edwards after BYU commit Jaren Hall went down with an injury late in the season. Edwards also ran the ball 14 times for 26 yards, though the Skyhawk defense also dropped him for a loss of 5 on five occasions.
Jordan Larson had 61 yards on 12 carries to lead Maple Mountain, which lost three of its final four games of the season after Hall's injury.
Salem Hills advances to play at Highland in a 4A first-round game Saturday.
"Hopefully we can stay hot in the first round and go beat Highland," Smith said.
In other 4A play-in games, Skyline shutout Cyprus 14-0 and then held off Hillcrest 7-6 in a three-win play-in game from Region 6, and Box Elder outlasted Bonneville and Woods Cross by a combined score of 28-14 in Region 5.
The Eagles will play at three-time defending 4A champion Timpview on Saturday afternoon, and the Bees will travel to Region 8 champion Springville on the same day.
In Class 3A, Delta ran past Canyon View 48-26 in a 3A South play-in game that advanced the Rabbits to face top-seeded Juan Diego in the first round of the state tournament.
