COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Capped with a miraculous defensive play by Sydney Bagrou on fourth and goal, the Jordan Beetdiggers held off a tenacious fourth-quarter rally from the Layton Lancers Friday night to post a 19-13 win.
After a shanked punt gave them the ball on their own 45-yard line, the Lancers rode more than 50 receiving yards by Jeremy Hayward to a first and goal at the Beetdiggers' nine-yard line. Three solid defensive stops and a delay-of-game penalty later, they were faced with a fourth down from the 13 with less than a minute in the game.
Quarterback Gavin Green dropped back and found a receiver wide open in the end zone. But just as the ball was about to land in his arms, Jordan's Bagrou leapt backward and barely got a finger on it, sending it to the ground.
"We have some kids who made big plays," Jordan coach Alex Jacobsen said. "The offense isn't going to tear it up every night. We had a lot of fourth down stops (on defense), so that helped us a lot."
The play capped a night in which Beetdigger receiver Cody Raymond dominated with 13 catches, 100 yards, a touchdown, a sack and multiple defended passes.
Raymond touched off the scoring with a quick seven-yard dash after grabbing quarterback Chaun Cook's pass. The Lancers got themselves on the board with a 28-yard reception by Matt Putnam early in the second quarter. Jordan answered shortly before halftime as Cook hooked up with Darren Carter for a 39-yard score.
The score was 19-6 going into halftime, and Jordan appeared ready to burst with a scoring explosion at any time. But a gritty Layton defense came out and mostly shut down the Beetdiggers in the third quarter; unfortunately for the Lancers, Raymond and the 'Digger defense also had no plans of giving any ground.
"We did everything we wanted in the first half, but our offense didn't do as well in the second half," Raymond said. "We played a lot better defensively though. We really held our own in the red zone."
Still down 19-6 as the fourth quarter began, Layton found itself with a first-and-goal, only to have Raymond flush Green out of the pocket where he was sacked for a 20-yard loss by Tyler Larsen. On fourth-and-goal from the 25-yard line, the Jordan defensive line surged through to block a field-goal attempt.
Later in the quarter, Layton caught fire when Hayward took a pass for 30 yards followed by Green scrambling for 35, eventually setting up a one-yard touchdown by Chad Wilson.