Two weeks ago, Jaxon Pehrson spotted Skyridge 14 points before the Falcons' offense had even scored. Two first-quarter interceptions, both returned for touchdowns, four picks on the night and a 37-27 Corner Canyon loss.
So you could forgive American Fork for liking its chances Thursday night.
That lasted two minutes and 22 seconds.
Pehrson threw three touchdown passes to Kelen Gold with almost six minutes still left in the first quarter, and No. 78 Corner Canyon was up 27-0 after one, 41-10 at the half, and walked out of American Fork with a 41-17 win. Pehrson accounted for five touchdowns. Gold caught four of them. And the Chargers (7-2, 2-1 Region 3) did it on the road without Diesel Dart, who didn't dress. That's their Mr. Do-It-All, the No. 2 two-way player in the state on our Utah POP Rankings.
We were in the building. The first quarter was a robbery under the lights.
The first 12 minutes
It started on defense. On American Fork's first possession, the Chargers knocked the ball loose and linebacker Tate Patterson fell on it.
Then Pehrson went looking for one guy. He found Gold in the corner of the end zone from 17 yards at 9:38. Gold again from 16 at 6:50. And when the Cavemen still hadn't figured it out, Pehrson hit him from 32 yards at 5:51. Jackson Carruth went in untouched from 7 yards with 1:44 left, and the scoreboard read 27-0.
Three touchdown catches in a quarter is a create-a-player stat line. Gold did it in a road region game.
The Cavemen push back
Credit American Fork, because it didn't fold. The Cavemen picked off Pehrson in the second quarter, Damian Wilkinson hit a 20-yard field goal, and sophomore quarterback Jake Matsen found Noah Behm for a 31-yard touchdown. Ten straight points. 27-10. Maybe we had a game.
Corner Canyon answered like it took that personally. Pehrson pulled it and went 23 yards for a touchdown with 2:22 left in the half, then found Gold one more time from 14 yards with 17 seconds on the clock. 41-10 at the break, and the conversation was over.
The second half
The second half was a grind, and some of that was on Corner Canyon. The Chargers lost a fumble and threw an interception in the third quarter and didn't score again after halftime. American Fork went to a heavy package and Ben Iongi punched it in from 3 yards with 2:44 left in the third, 41-17.
The Chargers got the ball right back after the fumble, too, when safety Will Tenney picked off American Fork. From there Corner Canyon put the deep shots away and played keep-away with a 24-point lead. Nobody scored in the fourth. The Chargers took a knee on the last snap.
Nobody runs on these guys
American Fork wanted to run the ball. Ryce Palepoi had other plans.
The senior linebacker looked like he was playing on a different difficulty setting than everybody else out there, and the Cavemen never got their ground game started. Outside of the Behm touchdown, they didn't get much of anything started.
Then there's the big man up front. Wyatt Warner is the No. 1 defensive lineman on our Utah POP Rankings, with 11.5 sacks and 20 tackles for loss through eight games, and he looked the part. So did the rest of the Corner Canyon defensive line, which owned the line of scrimmage all night against an American Fork front that didn't look as physical as last season's. The Chargers tackled and hit from start to finish. First-year coach Casey Sutera is going to enjoy this tape. Well, most of it.
On the other sideline, senior linebacker Luke Vernon was American Fork's bright spot with an interception and a fumble recovery. The Cavemen just had no answer for Corner Canyon's new-look receiving group, and no answer at all for Gold.
What it means
For Corner Canyon, this is the win it needed. The last region game was the Skyridge mess, when the Chargers trailed 21-0 after one quarter. Last week's 56-0 win over Cedar Valley was a non-region game. Thursday was the first real test since, and Corner Canyon flipped the script on the first quarter: 27-0, its way this time.
Here's the counterargument, because we don't dodge those. Three turnovers and a scoreless second half won't cut it against Skyridge, and they really won't cut it against Mountain Ridge, first on our Utah board, if those two meet in the playoffs. Fair. But 41 points in a half against a good American Fork defense, on the road, without your best player? That isn't a fluke. That's a warning shot.
For American Fork, this one stings. A 20-19 loss to Lehi last week, then 27 points allowed in a single quarter. That's two straight region losses, and the slide is happening at exactly the wrong time of year. The Cavemen are still a good football team. They need to regroup and do some soul searching before they go to Skyridge next Wednesday, the same night Corner Canyon hosts Lehi.
Corner Canyon won this matchup 37-21 last season. This year it needed one quarter.
SPIN Player of the Game: Kelen Gold
The junior told SPIN after the game that he'd been nursing an injury. He came into Thursday with 197 receiving yards and two touchdown catches in four games, and last week against Cedar Valley he gave us the trailer: two catches, 80 yards.
Thursday was the full movie. Four touchdown catches in one half, from 17, 16, 32 and 14 yards, three of them in the first quarter. That's 79 yards on the scoring catches alone, and he was the best player on the field by a mile.
Write the name down. Kelen Gold just introduced himself to Region 3.
