The Cowboys put together a dominating performance in the Semifinal game against the Enterprise Wolves, only to meet the favored Layton Christian Academy Eagles. An International private school based in Layton, UT. LCA competes in 3A division in its other sports, but competes in 1A in football. The Championship game kicked off last Friday morning at 10 a.m., at the newly remodeled Utah Tech University stadium in St. George, and if you were out and about Friday morning, you’d see a caravan of Cowboy red clad community members hitting the road to support their Cowboys.
The Cowboys put together a strong first quarter, holding the Eagles on their first drive and senior Derek Brown taking the punt for a nice 40-yard return setting up great field position for the Cowboys. Unable to convert the Eagles took over and found the end zone first, but a blocked extra point with a 1:30 left in the first quarter keeping the game close 6-0. The Cowboys looked to answer by going for it on fourth and short, but not being able to convert, the Cowboys gave it back to the Eagles who converted again making it 13-0.
The Cowboys struggled to get an offense established against the talented Eagles defense, ending in another punt, which the Eagles converted again with 3:21 left in the second quarter 20-0. The Cowboys weren’t out of it yet, and a score before the half would’ve given the Cowboys the momentum they needed, but a deep pass over the middle by the Eagles pumped the score to 27-0, before moving it 34-0 at halftime.
The second half went the same way as the first, but the Cowboys were able add a few scores in the third quarter when Brown making a spectacular catch from Bone for a 20-yard scamper, with Hayden Gubler giving the Cowboys their first score. LCA added another to widen the gap 40-7. The Cowboys defense weren’t able to slow the Eagles strong dual rushing attack of Vaitaki and Jessaia Giatras Moala. The Eagles were able to put up 469 total yards of offense compared to the Cowboys 222 yards overall. The Cowboys finished the season with a very respectable record of 10-3, same as the LCA Eagles, but came up short in the championship game to a really tough and talented private school team.
Coach Quarnberg said of the season, “As a coaching staff we are proud of the boys this season. This is a good group of kids that worked hard all year and kept getting better. We lost Travis Stewart, one of our very best players on the opening drive of the season but we never made excuses and never quit working. Kason Janes and Parker Franklin both come to the end of awesome careers. Parker rushed for over 2000 career yards and 23 touchdowns. Kason scored 26 career touchdowns as well as 1000 yards receiving this season.” Cowboys 01: Derek Brown makes another amazing one-handed catch. KHS football photos and captions by Matt Brown.
