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SYRACUSE — Lone Peak came up with a safety, a blocked punt and an interception in the final 15 minutes of Friday's game against Syracuse to move on in the 6A state playoffs with a 22-17 win.
"Defense was lights out," head coach Bart Brockbank said. "The offense put them in a bad spot early. (Syracuse) got that touchdown off the pick, then (we) held them to a field goal, then end up giving a touchdown; but after that, I mean, the defense was awesome. They figured it out."
Syracuse went up 10-0 early in the second quarter in front of its home crowd, but Lone Peak responded with two touchdown catches from Kaden Hodson to Shaun Blanton in the second quarter, and Syracuse led 17-14 at the half.
Crew McChesney was the big-play guy for the Knights on offense all night, bringing down multiple deep throws to repeatedly set up his team in the red zone on both touchdowns.
It was all Lone Peak in the second half, though, with the safety coming with 2:40 left in the third quarter after a Syracuse fumble backed the Titans up to their own goal line.
Syracuse was able to keep the Knights out of the end zone early in the fourth quarter, but a blocked punt gave Lone Peak the ball back on the goal line with 5:03 left in the game down 17-16.
Hodson found Trey Robinson on a 6-yard pass to the edge of the end zone and Robinson got his toes down to give the Knights a 22-17 lead with 4:02 left.
Followed by a potentially game-sealing interception. pic.twitter.com/jJNtgD9GD8
— KSL.com Sports (@KSLcomSports) October 29, 2022
The game appeared to be sealed on the following Syracuse drive when Alex Passey came up with an interception, but the Knights' offense was unable to get the first down to finish the game.
"For us this year ... we haven't really finished games super well," Brockbank said. "So what's going through my mind is: 'Are we going to finish the game and close them out?'"
The game was put back in the hands of the defense, and they delivered, breaking up several Syracuse shots to the end zone to advance to the quarterfinals, where they will face Bingham on Nov 4.
