Grand lost just two games during the regular season. In last week's 2A semifinals, the surprising Red Devils avenged one of those losses. Now they're seeking to avenge the other.

Grand and San Juan square off in today's 2A state football championship at Southern Utah University at 2 p.m.

When these same teams met back on Sept. 9, San Juan held on for the 21-19 win as a Grand two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter.

"Grand is a great program," said San Juan coach Monty Lee. "At this stage, we wanna win, but we're here. There's only two teams here. Everyone else is watching at home."

At 11-0, the Broncos are seeking their third perfect season in school history. They finished undefeated in 1989 (11-0) and 2000 (13-0).

The well-balanced Broncos feature four different running backs who've rushed for five or more TDs this year — Roman Black, Marley Haws, Paul Sanders and Jens Wilson.

San Juan quarterback Kyle Hosler has passed for 1,140 yards this year and 11 touchdowns.

When it comes to Grand's offense, there isn't much balance at all.

The Devils' offense revolves almost entirely around the rushing of Tanner Brown and quarterback Tony Dalton. Brown has rushed for 1,587 yards and 17 touchdowns this year, while Dalton has added nine rushing TDs.

Grand's last championship game appearance was 1984, and the school is 0-5 in title games dating back 85 years.

The 1A championship game kicks off at 11 a.m. between Kanab and Enterprise.

Like the 2A game, it is also a rematch of an earlier game this year. Back on Sept. 9, Enterprise took advantage of a banged-up Kanab squad and rolled to the 29-13 win.

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Enterprise is making its third state championship game appearance in the past four years, while Kanab is playing for the 1A title in its first year after dropping down from Class 2A.

The Wolves, who average, 30.7 ppg are led by quarterback Cody Nielsen who has passed for 1,817 yards and 19 TDs this year. Running back Sam Fenn has led the ground attack with 1,323 yards and 19 scores.

For Kanab, running back Tyler Ramsay is coming off a huge semifinal performance against Monticello, and he'll be looking to build upon his 11 rushing touchdowns this year.


E-mail: jedward@desnews.com

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