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MILLVILLE — There is familiarity between Snow Canyon and Ridgeline football, as the two schools faced off in the regular season already in a 24-8 win for the Riverhawks.
Riding a five-game winning streak into the 4A state quarterfinals, the Warriors traveled north with hopes to exact some revenge.
But on Friday night in Cache Valley, Ridgeline (8-4) maintained the upper hand and forced four turnovers, scored five touchdowns and cruised to a 41-20 win over Snow Canyon (7-4) to advance to the semifinals.
The Riverhawks offense, which was relatively quiet in a 24-0 win over Pine View last week, posted four first-half touchdowns and kept the Warriors at arm's length throughout the game.
"I mean, that's one of the things we talked about all week long was this is a team that we beat twice in the last two years. They were rolling coming into this thing and beating teams pretty good," Ridgeline coach Travis Cox said. "We thought if we could jump on them early, it would take that momentum they'd built throughout the season and they'd realize that it's the same team they've been playing the last couple years. So we want to kind of enforce our will early."
The return of senior receiver Jackson Olsen at the start of the playoffs was timely for an offense starting a freshman at quarterback. Olsen put up big numbers in his second game back to help stimulate the offensive attack.
The Utah State commit who missed a portion of the regular season with a collarbone injury came alive with nine receptions for 137.
On a first quarter reception, Olsen tossed a Warriors safety aside and broke up field for a 24-yard gain. The Riverhawks scored moments later with a 19-yard pass from Dahle to freshman Hunter Knighton to go up 14-7.
In the second quarter, Olsen then corralled a tightly contested throw from Dahle at the 2-yard line for a 40-yard reception. The Riverhawks scored on the next play on a rush from Dahle to lead 21-7.
"The game plan was definitely (built) around him this week," Cox said about Olsen. "And he did a heck of a job on getting us going early. And you've got to credit Nate, the O-line giving some time, and Nate put him on and let him make some plays. It was fun to see; it's fun to have him back."
Dahle was an effective 15-of-23 passing for 208 yards and a touchdown, and he rushed for 38 yards and three touchdowns. JT White added 72 yards on 15 carries. In all, Ridgeline outgained Snow Canyon 369-207 in total yards.
Warriors senior quarterback Hunter Johnson went 18-of-27 passing for 154 yards, and managed to lead the offense to a handful of scores throughout the game. But the turnover bug nixed Snow Canyon drive after drive.
Warriors senior receiver Will Warner returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, but it was called back. On the first play of scrimmage, Johnson fumbled the ball and Ridgeline pounced on it, and then went up 7-0 moments later.
Trailing 21-7 in the second quarter, Warriors senior receiver Teagan Hugh fumbled the ball in Ridgeline territory, which was recovered by Tanner Paskett. The Riverhawks capitalized with a touchdown to go up 28-7.
The Warriors coughed it up twice in the second half, also. Ridgeline was gifted the ball inside Snow Canyon territory four times on the night, turning it into two touchdowns and two field goals.
"Seemed like every tough thing that could have happened or every chance we had at a turnover or changing momentum was just out of our reach," Snow Canyon coach Mike Esplin said. "Didn't seem meant to be in a lot of ways tonight. Our lesson was going to be a hard lesson tonight."
"The defense was really, really good tonight," Cox said. "We had two bad drives in the second quarter, but other than that, I thought they played lights out and continue to play well. Turnovers is the name of the game."
Ridgeline faces Crimson Cliffs in the semifinals in Cedar City on Nov. 5.
