Prep Football: Semifinals, Quarterfinals Playoff Previews and Predictions for Northern Utah | News, sports, jobs

BRIAN WOLFER, special about the standard examiner

Morgan’s Will Korth, 30, tries to escape access by Ogden’s Rylan Olivieri, 41, during a soccer game at Ogden High School on Thursday, October 7, 2021.

The calendar has changed to November and there are still six Northern Utah prep football teams in the playoffs.

Two teams play in the state semi-finals: Morgan in 3A and Layton Christian in 1A. Morgan competes in the semifinals for the seventh time in a row and LCA makes its second appearance in school history (2011).

In 6A, Weber receives Syracuse for a rematch in Region 1 in the quarterfinals. Farmington visits Skyridge to make his first semi-final appearance in school history.

In 5A, Bountiful seeks its first appearance in the semifinals since 2011 when it hosts the ardent Orem, who have won four straight state championships and 19 straight playoff games.

Last week’s forecast record: 7-2. Season forecast record: 119-36.

MORGAN vs. JUAB

3A Semi-Finals: Saturday, 4pm at Southern Utah University

For the fifth straight time, Morgan and Juab clash in the postseason, with MHS winning three of the previous four.

The teams met in the last two state title games; Morgan won 8-0 in 2019 and Juab won 17:14 in 2020.

# 4 Morgan (8-3) made three interceptions, and Gunnar Lish trailed the pass-loving North Sanpete last week, and the Trojans did well against teams that fit well (and very well against pretty much everyone). this year by the way). That should help against Juab.

On offense, Morgan has a handful of players who can run, including quarterback Nick Despain and Will Korth, Will Lance and Alex Fisher. The teams have done well against Juab this season.

# 1 Juab (10-1) is as close to a 50-50 run-and-pass team as you will find, but the Wasps have a good quarterback and four receivers with 22 or more catches. The running game is hot and cold: Ogden kept the Wasps at 96 yards with 22 runs last week, Juab struggled on the floor in some of his blowout wins, and had his fair share of big running games too.

Defensively, Morgan is statistically better, allowing 11.5 points per game compared to Juab’s 21.6 per game. Juab forces a lot of sales and can easily take control if the Trojans aren’t careful.

If you look at mutual opponents this season, it looks like this:

Morgan defeated Manti 42-0, North Sanpete 56-18 and Ogden 33-7. Juab defeated Manti 35-25, North Sanpete 41-12 and Ogden 31-24.

Computers like Morgan in the double digits in this game, but any outcome that isn’t a single-possession game seems unlikely. It still looks like Morgan would be better suited to win this tournament.

Prediction: Morgan

SYRACUSE in WEBER, 6 p.m.

The winner of this 6A quarter-finals on Friday gets to play in the state semi-finals at Rice Eccles Stadium next week, a dream achievement for pretty much any team in the state that has the opportunity. It would be the first state semi-final for No. 12 Syracuse since 2012 and the first for No. 4 Weber since 1999.

Whoever wins will be the first Region 1 team to reach the semi-finals since Fremont in 2016.

When Weber and Syracuse clashed this September, the Titans looked like they’d won a two-point conversion from Philly Special to take a 32-31 lead in less than a minute.

Then the Warriors marched across the field on a last-minute drive preparing them for a 50-yard field goal from Syracuse transfer Jayce Jones, whose buzzer-beater cleared the posts so easily that he didn’t need a tailwind behind him would have.

The Titans, who were 4-0 in the game outside the Region, lost the next week in Davis on a Hail Mary and were eliminated from the Region 1 title race on October 1.

They had done enough in August to secure them a 6-4 regular season record and number 12 in the playoffs.

What followed were two double-digit playoff wins against No. 21 Pleasant Grove (33-7) and No. 5 Mountain Ridge (35-23), consisting of this year’s best two-game scoring track for the Titans.

The victories moved Syracuse’s all-time playoff record in 13 appearances to 14-12.

Weber has won nine straight wins, including a fourth Region 1 title in five years since he was beaten up in American Fork on August 20.

The Warriors lost quarterback Jake Lindsay for the season to an injury to Olympus on October 1. Since then, the team has rallied and, oddly enough, has scored exactly 35 points in each of the three games since then.

Friday is challenging, but it’s tough to face the team with a nine-game winning streak at home.

Prediction: Weber

OREM at BOUNTIFUL, 6 p.m.

Bountiful is 5-2 all-time against Orem, with all seven previous meetings taking place in the playoffs.

As much as the current game of the Redhawks No. 4 (8-2) left the teams in the dust, the defense allowed 15.6 points per game this season and only two teams – Park City and Skyline – even made 20th -Points dwarfed mark against BHS.

Bountiful has good defensive numbers with 65 tackles-for-loss, 25.5 sacks and 22 forced turnovers. You will need this defense to generate short fields and have a chance against a No. 21 Orem team that is better than a 6-5 record suggests.

The Tigers have already defeated Brighton at 20 and Provo at 14 in the playoffs, teams with better passing offenses than Bountiful’s.

Orem’s defense has 30 sacks and the offense relies on a handful of playmakers.

Prediction: Orem

FARMINGTON at SKYRIDGE, 6 p.m.

No. 3 Skyridge (10-1) is big on offense, but No. 6 Farmington has to worry about defense.

Skyridge has allowed 99 points in 11 games with five shutouts for a total of 96.5 tackles-for-loss with 30 sacks and 22 turnovers.

As a result, Farmington’s (8-3) defense was key to his seven-game winning streak.

The Phoenix allowed 38 points in four games (9.5 points per game) in October and in the series of seven games, Farmington allowed 81 or 11.6 points per game.

Skyridge are an all round better team than the West team, who beat Farmington 10-7 last week, although the Phoenix are good enough to keep things tight.

Prediction: Skyridge

LAYTON CHRISTIAN vs. KANAB

5 p.m. at Southern Utah University

No. 6 Layton Christian (8-4) has already set his record for the most victories in one season in school history and is exactly 10 years to the day since his last semi-final appearance (November 5, 2011, against Monticello).

No. 2 Kanab (9-2), a strong team that has usually done better against mutual opponents this year.

Two examples are the Cowboys who beat Duchesne 27-6 and North Summit 23-6 versus Duchesne who beat LCA 39-15 and lead the LCA North Summit 19-14.

Both teams beat Enterprise with possession, both teams smoked Gunnison Valley, and both teams played North Sevier to a one-point game.

Either way, Friday’s semi-finals should be a quick game as both teams let the ball run a lot. The game also features 1,000-yard backs at Jessaia Giatras-Moala from LCA and Parker Franklin from Kanab.

Prediction: Kanab

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