Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — To some, Skyridge wasn't supposed to be playing at Rice-Eccles Stadium Friday afternoon.
But don't tell that to the players of the reigning 6A champions. Skyridge punched its ticket back to the championship game Friday in a 34-21 win over top-seeded American Fork.
Even without head coach Justin Hemm roaming the sidelines after being suspended two games as a result of a ruling from the UHSAA for an ineligible athlete playing in the first two playoff games, Skyridge set the tone early on defense and then made the Cavemen pay on offense in the win.
"We really wanted to come out and set a tone," said defensive coordinator Patrick Gleaves, who was the interim head coach for Skyridge. "We wanted to show that we could play Skyridge type of defense, and I thought we did some excellent things in the first half. It was awesome."
Skyridge's secondary came up big on American Fork's opening drive and got a pair of pass breakups to hold the Cavemen to an early three-and-out series, and then did it again on the next series to give the Falcons offense a chance after a short punt set up the Falcons on the Cavemen's 44-yard line.
The two quick three-and-out series were enough, and Skyridge quarterback Jackson Stevens went to work.
The senior quarterback, who transferred from Davis High earlier this year, led his team on a six-play, 44-yard drive that was capped off with a 15-yard toss over the shoulder of receiver Trent Call in the end zone for the early score.
To closeout the first half, Stevens led a 13-play drive that ended when he found Laa Kalama in the front left corner of end zone for the team's second score of the game for a 14-0 lead with 45 seconds left in the half.
Instead of playing for halftime, American Fork attempted to make something out of a long field. But on the first play of the Cavemen drive, quarterback Dylan Story threw an interception to Tavian Edwards that nearly went back for a touchdown. Just five seconds later, Stevens connected with Kalama again on a 13-yard touchdown pass for the three-score lead.
"This team is a two-headed snake, man," Stevens said. "When the defense is on and the offense is on, I mean, we can beat anyone we want to. They definitely came out, set the tone, got the first stop. And from that point on, things were just rolling for us."
American Fork had some life in the second half and challenged to make it a close game late, but Stevens remained calm and quickly answered back with a 55-yard pass to Jack Burke, a 24-yard pass to Trevan McClellan, and then Burke found the end zone on a 2-yard run to put the game out of reach again.
Even then, American Fork played to the final whistle and got to Skyridge's 11-yard, but Story threw an interception to Edwards, who also blocked a first-half field goal attempt to keep a clean sheet, on fourth down to end the game.
"It's just attributed to the culture that we have here and to the attitude that we have to be team-oriented, to be family-oriented, and to come out here, play together for each other, and to play for our head coach, as well," Gleaves said.
Stevens said it took the whole team to get a win after Hemm was ruled out for the game, but the team blocked out the noise and went to work.
"It took everyone," Stevens said. "It took the senior class, it took me, it took leaders on offense, leaders on defensive. It really took everyone this week to make up for the loss of coach Hemm being out."
Skyridge awaits the winner of the second 6A semifinal game between Corner Canyon and Lehi, a result Stevens said he's happy to have no matter which team wins.
"Both outcomes are great," Stevens said. "I've always wanted to — I've never gotten to face off against Corner Canyon, so that's one that I definitely want. But the crosstown rivalry in a state championship would be pretty cool, too. So either way, we're ready to go and it'll be a fun one next Friday."
