Skyline was ranked No. 1 by the Deseret Morning News before the football season kicked off, and you could've drawn yawns back in August by declaring that the Eagles would advance to the 2005 title game.

In that sense, it isn't surprising that Skyline is back where it seemingly always is — playing for a state championship.

It's just that the regular season didn't go according to script.

Skyline stood 5-1 before losing its final four regular season games. That dropped it all the way down to Region 2's No. 4 seed.

What a difference a month can make. Pegged as underdogs at the start of the playoffs, Skyline has dispatched Lone Peak, Hunter and West Jordan en route to the title game.

"It feels so much different (than after losing four games)," said Taylor Sedillo.

Skyline will play Brighton at 1:30 p.m. today at Rice-Eccles Stadium in the 5A state championship.

What's turned things around for Skyline?

For starters, their defense has been vastly improved. During Skyline's four losses, they were outscored 158-83 and teams averaged 39.5-points-per-game against them. In three playoff games, they've only allowed a paltry 20 points.

Sedillo, who starts at linebacker, credits that 6.67-points-against-per-game average to the coaching staff's decision to switch into a 4-2-5 defense.

That move occurred just before the Lone Peak game, and it seems to have paid huge dividends.

"We felt a lot more comfortable with that defense," said Sedillo. "It's the defense that we played in little league."

In addition to improvements on defense, the Eagles have managed to cut down on costly turnovers. That's something that Skyline did repeatedly during its losing streak but has since eliminated.

"We just (haven't) turned the ball over a lot (in the playoffs)," said sophomore running back Kalama Molisi.

Skyline has been the underdog in its first three games, and quarterback Matt Marshall thinks that will continue against Brighton.

When asked whether he thought the Eagles would be an underdog in the title game, Marshall responded: "For sure, and we love it."

Interestingly, Skyline, or the team that has beaten Skyline, will be the state champion for the 19th consecutive year.

Brighton hopes it will be the latter case. The Bengals will center their offensive plans around star running back Mike Hague.

Hague, who's already committed to BYU, has 1,881 rushing yards on 207 attempts this season.

Oh, by the way, it isn't a good idea to put the ball in Hague's hands during kickoffs. Archrival Alta notoriously learned that lesson twice last week in its semifinal contest with Brighton.

With a chance at the state championship game on the line, the Hawks were burned on 66- and 99-yard kickoff returns by Hague. The 99-yarder, which came early in the fourth quarter after Alta had cut the Bengals' lead to three points, killed off the Hawks' momentum and helped Brighton book its place in the championship.

Don't expect Skyline's coaches to commit those same blunders.

5A finals

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Brighton (10-1) vs. Skyline (8-5)

Friday, 1:30 p.m.

At Rice-Eccles Stadium


E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com

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