ST. GEORGE — After a 25-yard punt return by Jesee Nyberg put the Dixie High Flyers within two with a minute and a half remaining in the game, Dixie failed in three attempts at a 2-point conversion to tie the game before falling to the Cimarron Memorial High Spartans 29-27 Friday night at Walt Brooks Field.
Spartan Donnie Butler was flagged with two straight interference calls, giving Dixie the extra chances. A penalty against Dixie, which appeared at first to negate the Nyberg return, was instead assesed on the extra point play, pushing the Flyers back to the 17-yard line for the first attempt, then from half that distance for the second pass attempt, then a failed run by Nate Carter.
The Flyers held the Spartans to only two first downs the second half, but that's all it took for Cimarron to hold on for the win.
Down 7-15 at halftime, Dixie owned the third quarter with an 86-yard drive from their own 9-yard line to the Spartan five, picking up seven first downs along the way with nifty running by Carter and passes from Macrae Heppler to Zach Whitney and Tanner Torres. After a time-out, Dixie went for the score on fourth down and goal from the five, but failed as Carter was nabbed with a 16-yard loss to the 21. Dixie held and got the ball back with good field position after a short Spartan punt, but failed to score again after a fake field goal gave the ball to Cimarron deep in Spartan territory.
That's when Spartan Kevin Cormier errupted for one of those Cimmaron first downs with a 79-yard ramble before being caught at the 7-yard line by Dixie's Zach Whitney. Cormier, who had been an offensive bullet the entire night, was roughed up on the play, and the Spartans seemed to flutter on offense without him the next couple of plays. But Cimarron quarterback Joe Zikakis scrambled for a 7-yard score, and after another extra point kick by Alex Ramos, the Spartans took the lead 22-7.
The Spartans scored two plays later on a 20-yard interception return and point after to take a seemingly insurmountable 29-7 point lead with 10 minutes remaining.
Three first downs later, Dixie scored on a 16 yard pass to Torres, then after holding Cimarron again, and after another couple of first downs, Heppler caught Torres for a 38 yard score to tighten the game 29-21 after extra point kicks by Sharp.
The Spartans advanced the ball for only one more first down before giving up the punt return to Nyberg, which set up the 2-point attempts by Dixie.
"We were very fortunate to win the game," said Cimarron coach Ron Smeltzer. "We eeked it out over a good football team."
Smeltzer said he wasn't sure about his new player Cormier. But Las Vegas transfer Cormier removed any doubts about his play when he returned the game-opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. Added to his fourth-quarter 79 yard-run, and several pickups from one-yard to 13-yards, his offense made the difference for the Spartan team.