Corner Canyon overcomes difficult first half to put away Pleasant Grove 45-21

DRAPER — In the regular season finale for teams at near opposite ends of the Region 4 standings, Pleasant Grove made it difficult for Corner Canyon before the Chargers pulled away and won the game 45-21.

While the final score indicated a fairly easy win for Corner Canyon, it was anything but that for the Chargers in the first half.

At the beginning of the game, the Vikings pulled a trick onside kick, which they recovered and gave themselves the ball first after originally deferring to the second half. It didn't amount to much after BYU linebacker commit Owen Borg picked off Pleasant Grove quarterback Nic Staffieri five plays in, but it showed the Vikings weren't messing around — even with a 5-4 record on the season.

Neither team scored in the game until the first few minutes into the second quarter.

Pleasant Grove had a drive stall and was set to punt, but the snap went over the kicker's head and as he went to pick it up he was promptly tackled by Corner Canyon's defense. The Chargers started on the Vikings' 21-yard line, and three plays later quarterback Isaac Wilson found the end zone on an 8-yard touchdown run.

Once the scoring barrier had been broken, Corner Canyon had no trouble scoring on their next two drives to open up a 21-0 lead on the visiting team. But despite the large deficit, the Vikings weren't out for the count.

With about two minutes left in the first half, Corner Canyon's punt returner tried to gain a few extra yards and fumbled the ball, which the Vikings recovered. Starting on the Chargers' 30-yard line, Pleasant Grove drove into the red zone, converted a long fourth down, and ended the shutout with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Staffieri to Kael McCoy.

And the trickery continued.

Pleasant Grove recovered another onside kick and started a drive at Corner Canyon's 38-yard line with about 25 seconds to go in the half. Two plays later, the Vikings found the end zone again on a connection from Staffieri to senior Cannon Hale.

The Chargers' 21-0 lead had suddenly shrunk to a one-possession game going into the halftime break.

"Just mistakes and then we gotta be cleaner, too," Corner Canyon head coach Eric Kjar said about the first half. "We didn't execute for sure how I wanted to, especially in our run game.

"(Pleasant Grove) came out and had a good game plan. They got after us a little bit on special teams — onside kicked on the first kick and got it. They came out and got on us."

The second half of the game was a completely different story, however. Corner Canyon dominated in every facet of the game and scored 24 points while only allowing one more touchdown to their opponent.

The Chargers started the scoring on their first drive of the half when Wilson connected with his favorite receiver, Tate Kjar, for a wide open 36-yard touchdown pass. It was Kjar's second of three receiving touchdowns on the night; he finished the regular season with 15 touchdowns overall. The younger Kjar was quick to praise his quarterback for his success as a receiver.

"Isaac is such a great QB and he always hits me in stride," Tate Kjar said. "I'm very blessed to have a great QB like him."

Halftime adjustments were key in this game, but Eric Kjar knew what his team was capable of against Pleasant Grove; he just needed them to go out and execute, which he said was his message to the team in the locker room.

"It's a new half," Eric Kjar said. "Just come out and play the way you've been coached to do and the way you've played a lot through the years. Don't try to do anything special or try to play tight. We just had to be a little bit loose and come after them and attack them and (my players) did a good job."

Pleasant Grove scored late in the third quarter to keep the game close — Corner Canyon held a 28-21 lead at that point — but from there, the Chargers scored 17 unanswered points to finish off their regular season strong.

Now that both teams have wrapped up the regular season, each now prepares for the state playoffs, and each team will do so with vastly different amounts of momentum.

Corner Canyon heads to the postseason having won five in a row, with their last loss coming at the hands of Lehi over a month ago. Meanwhile, Pleasant Grove lost its last three games and failed to score a single point in two of them.

Though the players are the ones who determine the outcome of games with their performance, Eric Kjar said it's up to him and his staff to put his players in situations to succeed. They've done it for the most part this season, he said, but the playoffs bring a whole new challenge.

"You have to be able to try to get (the players) in the situations and then playing in situation football where they're not making mistakes," Eric Kjar said. "Or you have to get them executing the right way and doing what we're asking them to do. When we do that we're really good, and when we don't do that it's anybody's game."

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