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NORTH LOGAN — Needing to beat your bitter rival that is desperate for a marquee victory in order to claim a region title is no simple task.
And losing your starting quarterback to a shoulder injury at halftime while waste deep in a defensive slugfest with said bitter rival only amplified the struggle.
It was nothing Sky View could not overcome, though.
On Friday night in Cache Valley, the Bobcats took down their rivals, Green Canyon, three miles to the south 3-0 to clinch the Region 11 title.
A slugfest to remember — or forget — featured 14 punts, three turnovers on downs, two interceptions and just one trip to the red zone.
The trip to the red zone came courtesy of the Sky View defense.
With four minutes remaining in the game, sophomore Jace Lillywhite forced Wolves quarterback Peyton Johnson to fumble the ball; and junior Taylor Lindley recovered it at the Green Canyon 15-yard line.
Moments later, junior Calebe de Quadros booted in the 39-yard field goal to give the Bobcats the lead with 2:27 remaining. On fourth-and-10 on the ensuing Wolves possession, junior Ramsey Vicars picked off Johnson to all but seal the region title for Sky View.
"Going into this game, we knew it wouldn't be easy," Sky View coach Chris Howell said. "That's a really proud program, they have a great coaching staff. … We knew that they would have a good game plan; we knew that they would play as hard as they played all year, and they absolutely did.
"We knew it'd be a dogfight, and I felt like our kids just hung in there and continued to battle."
The path to a region championship for Sky View (5-4, 4-1) was not as smooth as it was two seasons ago, where winning the region was just a stepping stone toward the Bobcats' undefeated championship winning season.
After a difficult non-region play, where it loaded the schedule and lost three games to Wasatch, Rigby (ID) and Mountain Ridge, the Bobcats opened up region play with a 20-16 loss to Logan.
Sky View shook off its four-game losing streak and started to dominate. Wins over Ridgeline (30-6), Bear River (27-7), and Mountain Crest (35-14) gave it control of its own destiny entering the Green Canyon game.
Then they gutted out a defensive doozy to win the region.
"It's awesome," Howell said. "You know, it puts into perspective kind of the process. We scheduled an unbelievable preseason, every team that we played, they were bigger than us, faster than us in a lot of cases. And I felt like our kids continued to get better.
"We learned something through every one of those games. And, you know, by the time we got to region we were ready to go. Notwithstanding the Logan game when they played really well and beat us pretty good, our kids met the challenge every week."
On Friday night at Green Canyon, the Wolves' defense largely curtailed Bobcats junior quarterback Carson Thatcher and held him to 11-of-15 passing for 72 yards. Sky View's one promising drive in the first half ended with an interception by junior Andrew Egan.
Meanwhile, the Bobcats defense bottled up Green Canyon throughout the night, holding senior running back Gavin Christiansen to 49 yards on 16 carries and Johnson to 10-of-23 passing for 69 yards.
Things looked grim for Sky View when Thatcher walked out of the locker room with a sling around his right shoulder to open the second half, but junior Jace Favero stepped in and went 6-of-11 passing for 39 yards.
"I thought he did a great job just coming in and doing what he needed to keep us in the game," Howell said.
Both defenses kept their respective schools in the game late into the fourth quarter; both rush games were denied and Favero and Johnson both struggled to move the ball with their arms under immense pressure from the defensive fronts.
In the second half, exasperation was prominent from both packed bleachers in the stadium, as penalties reversed seemingly any big plays and the Wolves and Bobcats punted the ball back and forth to each other like a hot potato.
Lillywhite forced a fumble and Quadros' kick broke the dry spell.
"We pride ourselves on creating turnovers, the games that we've won this year, we've won the turnover battle in every single one of those," Howell said. "We've been backed up playing (our) half of the field pretty much all night. And that gave us a short field, and an opportunity to score."
Both Sky View and Green Canyon have byes next week ahead of the playoffs.
