The regular season climaxes with key contests for playoff berths and region championships in addition to traditional rivalry clashes and traveling trophy battles. And Week 10 sees Class 2A kick off its postseason a week earlier than the rest of the state for the 11th straight year, since 2005.
Region championships
In region races, only four teams have captured outright, undefeated league crowns: Timpview (Region 7), Springville (Region 8), South Summit (2A North) and Beaver (2A South).
Ten teams claim outright, undefeated titles by winning this week: the winner of Mountain Crest at Sky View (Region 1), Davis (Region 2), Bingham (Region 3), the winner of Lone Peak at Herriman (Region 4), East (Region 5), Olympus (Region 6), Logan (3AA North), Juan Diego (3A North), Duchesne (1A North) and Diamond Ranch (1A South).
In 3AA South, Desert Hills and Dixie, both 3-1 in region, can share league honors by winning. In 3A South, the winner of Juab at Manti earns at least a portion of the region crown, but must share with North Sanpete if North Sanpete defeats Canyon View.
Tournament talk
A whopping 60 schools are already guaranteed tournament action, leaving just 12 berths up for grabs among 23 eligible schools.
Region by region: Breaking down the Utah high school football playoff scenarios
There are no berths open in Class 3AA or 1A and teams in those leagues play for seeding this week. There are just three open spots in 5A, six in 4A and three in 3A.
Among the 60 that have secured berths, 52 repeat from last season. The eight non-repeaters include American Leadership, Kearns, Mountain Crest, North Sevier, Olympus, Pleasant Grove, Provo and Wasatch.
Provo (7-2) has gone the longest between tournament appearances; its last came in 2009 when it lost a first-round game at home to Woods Cross. That’s the last season Provo celebrated a winning record, too. This year’s winning campaign is just the fifth for the Bulldogs in 24 seasons.
North Sevier last saw postseason action in 2010 and American Leadership in 2011. Kearns, Mountain Crest and Wasatch make postseason appearances for the first time since 2012. Olympus and Pleasant Grove skipped the tournament last year after appearing in 2013.
Among teams still hoping to qualify for the postseason, Cyprus has gone the longest, since 2008, without seeing tournament action. Bonneville, still fighting for a playoff berth, and West Jordan, which has clinched a tie for a berth, last made the playoffs in 2009.
The other 20 schools that still have a chance to make the playoffs have made at least one appearance since 2012.
Eighteen squads, listed by region, have been eliminated from qualifying for the postseason: Clearfield, Northridge, Weber (Region 1); West (Region 2); Copper Hills (Region 3); Lehi, Riverton, Westlake (Region 4); Mountain View, Orem, Timpanogos (Region 7); Payson, Uintah (Region 8); Ben Lomond (3AA North); Carbon (3A North); Richfield (3A South); Wayne (1A North); and Parowan (1A South).
Orem is out of the playoffs after 16 straight appearances from 1999-2014. Riverton stays home for the first time since 2004, ending a run of 10 tournament appearances. Riverton and West, which have byes this week, concluded their seasons last week.
Tourney notes
The top two teams in both Class 3AA regions are rewarded with a first-round bye to the quarterfinals. Tooele clinched second in 3AA North and so makes its first quarterfinal appearance since 2003. It’s the Buffaloes’ 36th time in the playoffs overall.
Meanwhile, Millard has qualified for postseason action for a state-leading 63rd time.
Grand is in for the 50th time. However, if not for an unusual ruling, it would be the 51st. In 1926, Grand (4-2) won its region and looked forward to its first-ever tournament contest. But the Utah High School Athletic Association, as the UHSAA was then known, told the Red Devils they hadn’t played enough games to qualify for the state tournament. Carbon (8-0), which had played as an independent, replaced them. The Moab Times-Independent reported, “All of Moab is nauseated” by the UHSAA action.
Later, the same thing happened to Carbon. In 1939, Carbon won its region but was disqualified because, it was told, it hadn’t played enough non-league games.
Undefeated matchup
In a week of big games, one of the most intriguing is for the Region 1 championship as Sky View hosts Mountain Crest. The game between the two Cache County rivals may well attract an overflow crowd. When these teams decided the 1987 Class 3A title, 19,877 fans attended the contest at Utah State’s Romney Stadium. That’s a championship-game record that still stands.
This is the first time they’ve met as undefeated teams this late in the season. Sky View has taken the last two in the series, but MC still leads 23-11.
Mountain Crest and Sky View are not only used to winning, but used to winning big. In 5A, Sky View is ranked third in scoring average (39.8 points per game) and MC is fourth (39.3 ppg). Sky View’s margin of victory is 27.0 ppg and the Bobcats have won seven of their nine games by at least three touchdowns. Their closest contest was a 34-24 conquest of Brighton. Mountain Crest wins by average of 24.6 ppg and the Mustangs have won five games by at least four TDs although the other three victories were by a touchdown or less.
Incidentally, the only other possible remaining matchups between undefeated teams this season are the winner of this game versus Davis in the semifinals and the winner of that game meeting Lone Peak in the state championship, should the teams involved advance that far.
This Week’s most-played rivalries (min. 50 games)
Week 10 features a slew of traditional rivalries, including nine that have been contested at least 50 times.
Spanish Fork and Payson spar for the 95th time in Utah’s third most-played series. SF has taken the last eight and 15 of the last 16 to nab a 47-43-4 lead in the series, which began in 1917.
American Fork and Pleasant Grove skirmish for the 81st time since 1931. They’ve split their last four meetings; AF controls the series 49-29-2.
Morgan heads into its 79th battle with Grantsville enjoying a three-game winning streak in the series. The Trojans have won 14 of 17 this century to bolster their series lead to 48-28-2.
Duchesne and Altamont face off for the 67th time in an uninterrupted series that began in 1973. The Eagles have a 14-game winning streak over Altamont and lead 39-27.
Ogden and Ben Lomond duke it out for the 67th time in the annual Iron Horse game. Ogden dominates the uninterrupted series 46-20 since it began in 1953. In Iron Horse contests, which exclude state and region playoff games, Ogden has a 44-18 edge.
Richfield tripped Delta 13-7 last year to halt a 15-game series winning-streak by the Rabbits. Delta leads the series 47-13-3 going into their 64th meeting.
Judge Memorial opened in 1924 and was then known as Cathedral High. Its first-ever game was a 31-0 loss to Tooele. Tooele won the first five in the series, but Judge now has a 30-21 lead. Judge has won four in a row over the Buffalos as they meet for the 52nd time and first since 2012.
Roy has grabbed four straight over Weber in the Battle for the Shield to increase its lead in the 50-game series to 28-22 since it began in 1965.
Last year, Skyline snapped an Olympus five-game winning streak in the Battle for the Rock. The Eagles lead their archrivals 27-21-1 as they collide for the 50th time.
First-time pairings (5)
In addition to American Leadership at Enterprise and North Sevier at Summit Academy in the Class 2A playoffs, Corner Canyon is at Alta, Hunter visits Syracuse and Wayne welcomes Parowan in first time matchups. The Corner Canyon-Alta game is significant since CC split off from Alta three years ago.
Selected Week 10 game notes
Bingham has captured three straight over Brighton heading into their 46th meeting, but the Bengals still enjoy a 29-15-1 series margin. … Bonneville and Highland last met in 2007, but haven’t faced each other during the regular season since 1994. Their first-ever meeting came in the 1986 Class 4A final, which Highland won 25-20. Bonneville leads the series 6-5.
Bountiful and Box Elder last met in 2008; Bountiful defeated the Bees in ’07 and ’08 to take a 5-4 series lead. … Juan Diego is 4-0 against Emery County as they also battle for the first time since 2008. … Logan is 4-2 against Park City; all six previous meetings were played between 2005 and 2010. … Herriman is 2-0 against Lone Peak with both games played the last two years.
Perfect regular seasons
South Summit (9-0) has claimed its first-ever unbeaten regular season in 78 years of football. Springville (9-0), with a bye this week, has secured its sixth and first since 2004.
Diamond Ranch (7-0) wraps up its first-ever unblemished regular season by defeating Milford. Davis (8-0) garners its ninth unbeaten regular season and first since 2013 with a win over Layton. The Darts also hope to pick up their 575th victory, an ongoing state record.
Lone Peak (9-0) gets its second undefeated season and first since 2011 by beating Herriman. The 2011 Knights finished as state champs with a 14-0 record.
The winner of Mountain Crest-Sky View is, of course, guaranteed an undefeated regular season. MC (8-0) has gone undefeated during the regular season just once, in 1991, when the Mustangs started 11-0 before losing in the state championship game. Sky View (9-0) has enjoyed two unbeaten regular seasons, in 1969 and 2006. The ’69 Bobcats went 10-0 before losing a first-round playoff game. The ’06 team started with a school-best 11-0 record before suffering a semifinal loss.
Winning streaks
South Summit, winner of 19 straight, has the longest active streak followed by Lone Peak, Sky View and Springville, which have gone home happy nine times in a row.
Beaver slipped up during Week 1 but hasn’t lost since and joins Davis and Mountain Crest with eight-game winning streaks. Diamond Ranch, Herriman and Timpview have won seven in a row to round out the top-10.
Milestones
Murray competes for the 850th time in 98 seasons and Grand takes the field for the 800th time in 95 years.
Among coaches, Juan Diego’s John Colosimo goes for his 200th career win in 28 seasons with stops at Judge Memorial (46 wins) and JD (153).
Olympus’ Aaron Whitehead again aims for his 75th career victory in 10 years with stints at East (39 wins) and Oly (35).
Brandon Matich tries for his 50th win as head mentor at East. He has 39 more victories at Park City from 2005-09.
Bucky Orton coaches his 150th game in 13 seasons at Kanab.
After nine weeks, the Top-5…
Scoring teams: Jordan, 46.3; Canyon View, 43.8; Lone Peak, 40.2; Diamond Ranch, 39.9; Sky View 39.8.
Defensive teams: Duchesne, 7.0; South Summit, 9.4; Diamond Ranch, 9.6; Kanab 9.7; Bingham, 11.1.
By victory margin: Diamond Ranch, 30.3; Lone Peak, 27.8; South Summit, 27.3; Sky View, 27.0; Bingham, 26.0.
2015’s most-improved teams
Mountain Crest continues to lead the state as this year’s most-improved squad, going from 4-8 in 2014 to 8-0 so far, an improvement of 6.0 games. (The NCAA calculates this by taking the difference in victories and the difference in losses, adding the two numbers and dividing by 2.) Alta (2-9 to 6-3) and Lone Peak (5-6 to 9-0) are 5.0 games better.
Consecutive years in playoffs
Here are the schools that have advanced to the postseason at least 20 straight seasons, including this year:
39 seasons, San Juan, 1977-2015
38, Delta, 1975-2012
33, Highland, 1983-2015
31, Rich, 1985-2015
28, Skyline, 1985-2012
27, Bingham, 1989-2015
26, Bear River, 1981-2006; Beaver, 1990-2015; Timpview, 1990-2015
25, Hunter, 1991-2015
23, Bonneville, 1978-2000
21, Davis, 1972-1992; Kanab, 1971-1991; Millard, 1995-2015; Monticello 1973-1993; Morgan, 1995-2015
20, Beaver, 1969-1988
Accolades from Week 9
Alta scored 49 points in the first quarter against Timpanogos, the most points in a quarter since Manti also tallied 49 in 2012.
Duchesne blanked its fifth opponent this season, two short of the school record set in 2006 but matching the five posted by the 1996 Eagles.
Uintah notched first shutout since 2009, a span of 66 games. Only three schools, Lehi, Copper Hills and Canyon View have gone longer.
Alta’s Mitch Fisher became just the 33rd player in Utah prep history to kick nine PATs in a game. Only seven have booted more in a game.
Top-25 players
Let’s look at players who rank in the top-25 all-time in various categories this season (alphabetically by school).
American Fork QB Tanner Smith is 24th in career total offense yards (6,589). Last week he climbed from 21st to 14th in career passing yards (6,550). He’s 15th in career attempts (818) and completions (460).
Brighton’s Simi Fehoko, with 3,442 career reception yards, needs just four more to become Utah’s all-time leader. He has 40 career TD catches, one short of the state record. He’s in a 13th-place tie for career receptions (131). This season, Fehoko has 1,366 reception yards, the 13th-most in state history. He’s already in second place on that list for his 1,656-yard performance last year.
Jordan’s Drew Lisk ranks 23rd in season passing yards (3,191). Teammate Spencer Curtis is fifth in career receiving yards (2,826) and ninth in career receptions (162). Beetdigger kicker Jeffrey Timothy holds the state record for career extra points (219).
Maple Mountain’s Tanner Dayton has connected on 23 field goals during his four-year career, moving him into seventh on the all-time list. Quarterback Jaren Hall ranks 13th in career passing attempts (834) and 17th in career completions (442).
Sky View’s Bryce Mortenson has jumped into fifth in career TD receptions (35) and into a tie for 13th in career receiving yards (2,279) and career receptions (131).
Wasatch kicker Skyler Southam owns state records for season field goals (19) and career field goals (35).
Of note
This year, MaxPreps started recognizing regional Players of the Week. The website has carved the nation into eight sections and placed Utah in the Southwest Region along with Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. North Sanpete’s Spencer Applegarth was the first Utah player honored – and the only one so far. He achieved recognition for rushing for 286 yards and five touchdowns during Week 5 (Oct. 3).
Finally
Over the past four weeks, Monument Valley is 3-0 against out-of-state opponents and Whitehorse is 1-0. For the season, that gives Utah’s high schools a final record of 18-13 against non-Utah teams.
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