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HIGHLAND — The Lone Peak Knights used a 14-point first quarter to get the lead against the Herriman Mustangs and win 24-14 on Friday night.
Braden Siri threw two touchdowns and two interceptions in his debut at quarterback for the Knights.
As expected, Herriman relied on its strong defense to stay in this game.
Siri, who had no previous varsity experience, had a roller-coaster first quarter.
With seven minutes left in the first quarter, Siri threw a 35-yard pass to put the Knights in the red zone. Siri followed it up by throwing a touchdown, giving the Knights a 7-0 lead.
Lone Peak’s defense came up big right after Siri’s first touchdown. The Knights' defense forced and recovered a fumble, giving them the ball back on the Mustangs’ 11-yard line.
Siri didn’t waste any time once he got the ball back, throwing an 11-yard touchdown to wide receiver Thomas Doman.
Everything seemed to be rolling for Siri and the Knights after he threw his second touchdown of the game.
The Mustangs stopped the surging momentum of the Knights when Herriman’s Myles Jefferson had a pick-six. Jefferson’s interception and touchdown cut the Knights’ lead to 14-7 with 1:48 left in the first.
"I thought we had the momentum, but once our quarterback threw the pick-six, the momentum kind of shifted," said Lone Peak defensive end and BYU commit Michael Daley. "But I felt like we did a really good job stepping back as a team. As an entire unit, we came back and fought back."
Siri threw another interception in the final minute of the first quarter, giving the Mustangs the ball on their own 47-yard line.
"First game jitters for him (Siri) were evident, you know he had the two touchdowns early that kind of helped him, but after that, I think he could kind of tell all of a sudden, 'oh I'm in a varsity game game' type thing," said Lone Peak head coach Bart Brockbank.
Once the Mustangs got the ball, Herriman’s Jaxon James threw a 32-yard pass that was fumbled, giving the ball back to Lone Peak.
James had some trouble getting into a rhythm in the first quarter as Lone Peak kept blitzing him, forcing him out of the pocket.
"I thought the defense played well overall," Brockbank said. "I think we had one drive where I feel like we were confused, and that was our boys just kind of missing some calls here and there. … Outside of that, I feel like the defense did pretty well."
The defense of both teams was strong in the second quarter. The first and only points came when Lone Peak’s Josh Mortenson kicked a 28-yard field goal with 16.3 seconds left in the first half to extend the Knights’ lead to 17-7.
Herriman made things interesting in the third quarter. Kepu Fifita ran in for a 9-yard touchdown with 9:37 left in the third quarter to put the score at 17-14 in favor of the Knights.
The Mustangs got into the red zone again in the final minutes of the third quarter, but Lone Peak forced another fumble. Lone Peak recovered the fumble on the 1-yard line, giving it possession of the ball going into the fourth
Lone Peak threw in a trick play with 4:14 left in the game. Siri threw the ball for a double pass that led to a 35-yard Knight touchdown, easing the pressure and giving the Knights a 24-14 lead.
"Well at first, all of the coaches were like no, no, no, then when it works, you're a hero," Brockbank said.
Daley took down James with less than a minute left to secure the Lone Peak victory.
"Anytime you get recruited by a college, or like in my class I committed to BYU, you always want to prove that they made the right choice," Daley said. "And I'm excited to go there and I'll be able to make plays at BYU as well."
