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SOUTH JORDAN — In the biggest game of the 2022 high school football season to date, No. 5 Corner Canyon and No. 6 Bingham staged a must-see-TV event.
Hopefully you didn't flip the channel at halftime, though.
As promised, Corner Canyon quarterback Isaac Wilson delivered in the first half. Bingham's Dallen Martinez added a dyamic second-half performance.
And Drew Patterson carried the Chargers through the whole way.
With a number of absences due to illness, two-way player running back/linebacker Patterson ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries to help Corner Canyon outlast Bingham 38-28 Friday night in South Jordan.
"Honestly, my mindset is just to help the team the most and rush for as many yards as I can get," said Patterson, the combo player who is being recruited by Weber State, Southern Utah and a junior college in Minnesota, after also catching two passes for 16 yards, "try to get first downs and help the team put ourselves in position to win."
Wilson, the four-star younger brother of New York Jets quarterback Zach Wilson, threw for 261 yards and threw touchdowns for a Corner Canyon squad that rebounded from last week's 42-7 loss to Bishop Gorman, ranked at the time at No. 6 nationally by MaxPreps.
But with BYU-bound linebacker Owen Borg among the many absences due to illness, Wilson — who has offers from BYU, Miami, Oregon, Arizona and others — relied on his run game to build up a 31-7 halftime lead and hold on to hand the Miners (2-1) their first loss of the year.
"It's nice to have a guy like that who can step up and play his game," Wilson said of Patterson. "He was making cut after cut, breaking tackles, getting extra yards. He really balled out."
In addition to his two scores, nine of Patterson's 29 rushes went for a first down as he helped keep the Miners' defense keen on stopping the four-star pass honest.
Credit to the Chargers' offense line, then. The group has plenty to work on, head coach Eric Kjar said — eight penalties is a good place to start — but were at their best when they needed to, as shown by Patterson's runs.
"He ran great today, and our line did a really good job with most of our run schemes," Kjar said. "Drew does a great job, especially playing both ways. We didn't have Borg tonight, which hurt us; he's a big playmaker for us. But hopefully we'll get him back.
"We had a lot of guys that were new tonight on defense — probably three guys who haven't played much for us — and they looked good."
Wilson threw for 171 yards and two touchdowns in the first half as the Chargers scored on five of their first six drives. Only twice did Corner Canyon not end a drive in a touchdown: the opening one, when Preson Rasmussen hit a 25-yard field goal to open the scoring and the second quarter, when Bingham stuffed the Chargers on the 2-yard line.
On the next play, Boston Ross recovered a fumble and Patterson plowed through a couple of yards on one play for a touchdown that put Corner Canyon up 17-7 with 8:06 left in the half.
"It was honestly, awesome; just the momentum shift that we had was great," Patterson said. "Everyone executed their jobs perfectly in a good game."
✅Turnover
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Patterson ended the first half with 60 yards and two rushing touchdowns as the Chargers used the run to set up the pass, then the pass to set up the run.
Martinez ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns, including an 8-yard touchdown in the first quarter that pulled the Miners within three with 1:32 left. But after a 3-point first quarter lead, Corner Canyon forced a fumble, two punts and a missed field goal from distance just before halftime to turn a 10-7 edge into a 31-7 halftime advantage.
But the Miners weren't done yet.
Corner Canyon scored just one touchdown after the break — a 14-yard strike from Wilson to Tate Kjar with 3:33 left in the third quarter — and Martinez started the rally early. The 5-foot-11 dual-sport athlete led a five-play drive on the Miners' second possession of the third quarter, capped by Carson Sudbury's 9-yard tackle-bustling touchdown midway through the third.
The Miners added another touchdown through Martinez and an 11-yard score to open the fourth quarter from Havea Fotu. But Bingham could get no closer.
"Our guys were just motivated to win," said Patterson, whose team opened with four-straight road games including last week's Last Vegas loss. "We came out kind of flat in the first quarter, and it was kind of a closer game that we didn't expect it to be. We just powered through, and the line opened lots of holes."
Tate Kjar caught six passes for 122 yards and a touchdown for Corner Canyon, which also got touchdowns from Quinn Hale and Jackson Ames.
Martinez finished with 135 yards for Bingham, which plays at Timpview next week. The Chargers have one more road game at West Jordan next week before their home opener Sept. 9 against Lehi.
