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SOUTH JORDAN — As Lone Peak senior safety Jayden Mayberry studied film ahead of Friday's season opener against Bingham, he got the impression his team would have the upperhand.
"We didn't think their offense was that good," he said bluntly. "We just had to be able to tackle."
It turns out, Bingham had trouble tackling him.
In the third quarter, Mayberry picked off a pass near midfield and coasted right to the end zone. That pick-six score was just a part of a dominant defensive showing by Lone Peak in a 21-0 win over Bingham in KSL.com's Game of the Week.
"I thought he's gonna run the ball," Mayberry said of the game-changing play. "He just threw it right to me, really — just had to score."
Especially since scoring was hard to come by on Friday.
In the first half, the two teams combined for just 39 passing yards as both offenses struggled to get going. Lone Peak junior quarterback Kepa Niumeitolu found the end zone on a 12-yard run for the lone score before halftime.
"We didn't put a lot of points on the board, but defense, they came out," said Niumeitolu, who was playing his first game at Lone Peak after transferring from Alta.
The Lone Peak defense collected three interceptions and recovered a fumble; all four forced turnovers came in the second half to help Lone Peak pull away.
"That's your hope, but it's probably not your expectation," Knights head coach Bart Brockbank said of the shutout. "A lot of new guys on the field, little jitters. We made a number of mistakes, but we flew around, played hard, so when we did make mistakes, we bounced back."
Lone Peak's offense struggled to move the ball consistently and committed a number of penalties that either ended drives or helped the Miners (Bingham was also plagued by penalties — a classic Week 1 staple).
But due to a dominant defensive showing, the Knights were able to overcome those shortcomings Friday.
"We made mistakes every other play — I mean, all over. They just didn't expose us on those mistakes," Brockbank said.
The Knights exposed Bingham's, though. That was no more obvious than when Mayberry celebrated in the end zone after his first career pick six.
"We've got a lot of work to do," Brockbank said. "But we've got tough kids. We've got kids that play hard, that can fly around, and as the momentum got going, they played better and better throughout the night."
