By early in the second quarter of Thursday's 4A quarterfinal game with American Fork, it was obvious Skyline was on its way to a long-awaited semifinal matchup against Hunter next week. In fact, the way things were going, the Eagles looked like they were on their way to surpassing Hunter's much-talked-about point-total of 72 a week earlier against Highland.
Instead, after playing what Coach Roger Dupaix called "one of the best first halves we've had in a long time," the Eagles pulled in the reins and coasted to a not-as-close-as-it-looks 34-13 victory over the Cavemen at Rice Stadium.The Eagles scored on their first six possessions of the game, before the Cavemen could even muster a first down. But Dupaix, who has never been one to run up the score, wasn't about to even show a hint of overdoing it. "I'm afraid you'd write an article about it," he said with a laugh.
By the middle of the second quarter, the Eagles led 28-0 thanks to a pair of touchdowns each by quarterback Scott Vincent and running back Matt Hansen, who finished with 104 and 105 yards rushing, respectively on the day.
Hansen scored on a 1-yard run midway through the first period and Vincent got loose on a 61-yard run a couple of minutes later.
Early in the second quarter, Vincent capped a 76-yard drive with a 2-yard run on 4th down and with 7:56 left in the half, Hansen weaved his way 46 yards to make it 28-0.
"We haven't played up to our potential offensively and we wanted to come out today and show what we could do," said Vincent.
The rest of the quarter Skyline kept running up the middle and settled for a couple of field goals by Brian Alba from 43 and 45 yards out.
Late in the second quarter, the Eagles replaced Vincent (who later revealed he had a slight thigh bruise) with Rich Smith, a starting linebacker with the very un-quarterback number of 39. By the middle of the fourth quarter, two more Eagles had played quarterback, including the Eagles' outstanding wide receiver Cliff Doman, who had few chances to catch passes in this kind of game.
The Eagles did leave their starting defensive unit, which included John Frank, Joel Clark, Ryan Pettit and Pete Carlston up front, Dave Edwards, Lafe Casto and Smith in the middle and Doman, Robb Rheinholt, Dan Sonnenberg and Drew Hurst in the backfield, in for most of the game, even during American Fork's two late scores.
"It's hard to maintain your intensity when you have a good-sized lead," Dupaix said.
The Cavemen capitalized on a fumble by the Eagle reserves at the Skyline 12-yard line and pushed in a score with Dan Robinson going the final yard. Then on a 4th-down play with 27 seconds left, Robinson hit Adam Krommenhoek with a 3-yard pass to make the final somewhat respectable.
But this one had been decided at least an hour before that. "They just caught us when we were hot," said Dupaix.
As for next Saturday's matchup with Hunter, Dupaix said "I think it's going to be a heckuva matchup. Hunter has a great team, no doubt about it. You're going to see a great game."