By Steve Pimper
MaxPreps.com
All of the old standby cliches come to mind – breathtaking, heart-stopping, thrilling, unbelievable and miraculous – in trying to describe Alta’s 38-36, last-second win over Jordan Friday night.
But however cliche they may sound, all of them could be used to describe the wild and important Region II title game on the Beetdiggers’ home turf.
At stake were a first round postseason home game, the league’s top playoff seed and the outright Region crown and gold championship trophy, plus a full year of cross-town bragging rights as an extra bonus.
The 5A No. 1 Hawks and No. 5 Jordan put on a classic contest that is deserving of a standing ovation for the effort and execution of two teams battling with every ounce of fight for a full 48 minutes of high school football action (another cliche, but true).
The game featured two of the state’s top quarterbacks with Ammon Olsen of Alta accounting for four touchdowns while junior Alex Hart of Jordan had a hand in all five of the Beetdigger trips into the end zone, plus a crucial two-point conversion.
Olsen scored on first-half runs of 20 and 28 yards and tossed a third touchdown of 17 yards to Zach Liston as Alta built a very convincing and comfortable 28-7 second period lead.
Hart hit Cory Hunt with a 7-yard strike and then found Brock Bird on a 5-yard throw just before intermission to cut the Hawks bulge to 28-14 at the break.
In the third period Hart hooked up again with Hunt for a 75-yard aerial score while the Beetdigger defense corralled Olsen and the Hawks. The momentum seemed to favor the underdog and hometown Jordan team starting the final period trailing only 28-21.
Midway through the final period, Alta stopped a Jordan drive by intercepting a Hart pass and returning it into enemy territory. From there Olsen directed his Hawks to what appeared to be the game clincher as he powered home on a 1-yard plunge to give Alta a two-score, 35-21 lead with just under five minutes to play.
Hart and his two main receiving targets of Hunt and Braden Hammond had other ideas however as the trio worked in tandem with Hart hooking up with Hammond on a beauty of 44-yards to cut the margin to 35-28 with 1:49 remaining.
With the entire crowd and both teams knowing that an onside attempt was in the offering, the Beetdiggers still managed to recover the kick and after several sideline pass plays Hart found Hunt again on a 7-yard score and Jordan was only an extra-point kick away from knotting the score and sending the game to overtime with 1:01 on the game clock.
Head coach Alex Jacobson of Jordan decided to forego the PAT kick and the gutsy call paid off as Hart lobbed a perfect two-point conversion pass to Hammond along the back end zone line and Jordan was on top for the first time 36-35.
It was then Alta’s turn for heroics as Olsen alternated throws between Liston and Parker Webster to drive the Hawks from their own 17-yard stripe to the Jordan 22-yard line as Webster nabbed the final throw and stepped out of bounds with 3.5 seconds left to play.
Into the spotlight stepped Alta junior placekicker Vance Bingham, who had come up short on an earlier field goal try from 36 yards. This attempt was from 39 yards out and as the game clock clicked to zeroes the ball cleared the crossbar by mere inches to give the Hawks the Region II title and victory by a 38-36 final.
Olsen of Alta was 15 of 25 for 231 yards with one touchdown and accounted for another 107 yards rushing with three more scores. Alex Hart totaled 360 yards passing with five scoring strikes.
Other Key Games
In 3A and Region VIII action, the undefeated Delta Jackrabbits hosted the unbeaten Juan Diego Soaring Eagles in another clash for a league title.
Delta took a 7-0 halftime lead before the Soaring Eagles scored three times in the second half to complete a perfect 10-0 regular season and take a 21-7 win over the Rabbits.
In Region I play the two key games found the Knights of Northridge beating Viewmont 28-23 while second-year school Syracuse grabbed that Region’s No. 2 postseason playoff seed by scoring last in a defensive duel to edge Davis 10-9.
First round postseason play also started for the 2A division with four games scheduled.
The home teams won three of those contests as Beaver handled Gunnison 26-6, North Summit cruised by Grand 39-13 and Millard throttled the American Leadership Academy 41-14. The lone visiting team to claim victory was Richfield as the Wildcats clawed South Summit for an 18-6 win.
