After his team dominated Cottonwood in its season opener on Friday night, Alta offensive lineman Jordan Black didn't waste any time celebrating.
As he walked toward his team getting a break following a brief postgame speech from coach Les Hamilton, Black muttered just two words: beat Bingham.
The state's hottest rivalry takes that type of focus from both Alta and Bingham.
It's Bingham-Alta week, time for the Black and Blue rivalry to be renewed. No two teams have played each other as much as the Miners and Hawks in recent seasons as they've met twice each year dating back to 2006. No two teams have certainly played in front of as many fans, as Bingham expects another overflow crowd, probably one that will have close to 10,000 fans when they play again in South Jordan on Friday night.
The two teams have played 11 times since the 2001 season, and Bingham has a 6-5 edge in those contests. Alta, however, has won the last three games between the two teams.
Although both teams are coming off of victories, Alta enters Friday's showdown with a little more momentum. The Hawks handled Cottonwood in a 59-20 win. Bingham struggled offensively but looked outstanding on defense in a 28-8 win over Viewmont.
"They're good," Bingham coach Dave Peck said of the Hawks. "They're every bit as good as they were last year. They jumped all over them (the Colts)."
Black wasn't completely satisfied with his team's win over Cottonwood.
"There are definitely some things we need to work on," Black said. "We're not ready for Bingham yet, but we'll be there by Friday.
BINGHAM-TRINITY TICKETS AVAILABLE: After they play the Hawks this week, Bingham will travel to Texas to take on powerhouse Euless Trinity in the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. That game will be played Sept. 7 and tickets can be purchased at Bingham High. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students.
Organizers of the Bingham-Trinity contest say there may be more than 40,000 fans at the game, which takes place two days after BYU plays Oklahoma in the same stadium.
COACHES MAKE DEBUTS: A total of 21 high school football teams have new coaches this season and 20 of them made their debuts on Friday night. Their record was 7-13 with four of the games (Clearfield-Taylorsville, Snow Canyon-East, Stansbury-Maple Mountain, Timpanogos-Payson) featuring new coaches facing off. The winning coaches were Clearfield's Jeff Bingham,Snow Canyon'sJay Graft,American Leadership'sDavisLewis,Desert Hills'Jake Nelson, Stansbury's Clint Christiansen, Olympus' Mike Smith and Timpanogos' Brad King.
Graft coached Snow Canyon in a previous stint, Nelson is a former Dixie High coach, Christiansen has been a head coach at Provo and Smith is a former Copper Hills coach.
ALLRED JOINS 500 CLUB: Ogden quarterback Nik Allred had one of the most productive outings in state history in his team's 32-12 win over Murray on Friday night. He accounted for 424 passing yards and three passing scores and 76 rushing yards and two rushing scores. The 500 yards of total offense was the eighth best individual output in state history.
FLAGS FLY IN STANSBURY:Stansbury High won its inaugural game, but the Stallions have plenty to work on — such as keeping the officials' flags in their pockets. The Stallions were flagged 13 times for 111 yards in their 35-7 win over Maple Mountain on Friday.
Christiansen wasn't pleased with the penalties that killed some of his team's drives, and kept some of Maple Mountain's going.
"Penalties will kill you," Christiansen said. "Down the road when we get better and better teams — especially in our region — it's going to kill us. So we got to fix that part for sure."
e-mail: aaragon@desnews.com