It's just the emotion of coming out on top after everything we've been through — all the work we've put in. It's just an amazing feeling. – Herriman senior Kaden Strasters
SALT LAKE CITY — No one's doubting Herriman anymore.
Met with skepticism almost every step of the way, the Mustangs proved all the naypsayers wrong, upsetting favored Lone Peak 17-14 to take down the 5A state championship Friday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
After the clock clicked down to zero, the Herriman players stormed the field before collapsing at midfield, overwhelmed by the emotion involved with winning it all.
"It's just the emotion of coming out on top after everything we've been through — all the work we've put in," said Herriman senior Kaden Strasters. "It's just an amazing feeling."
For Strasters, he was given the opportunity to put the final touch on Herriman's improbable win. It was an opportunity he wasn't going to let pass.
Given a first-and-goal situation at Lone Peak's 1-yard line, and with 25 seconds left on the clock, the burly fullback plunged into the end zone to give Herriman what proved to be the championship-winning 17-14 score.
“I had to finish it off after my teammates made —those great plays. No way I was going to come up short. Absolutely no way,” Strasters said. “I had just one yard and I just had to fall in. All the rest of my teammates — the guys blocking, the guys who got us there those are the guys who deserve the credit.”
The plays leading up to Strasters' game-winning run were quite the adventure.
With 2:11 remaining, and down 14-10, the Mustang offense set up shop on its own 43. Considering sophomore quarterback Hayden Reynolds at the helm, and given its run-heavy offensive system, it was easy to doubt Herriman could get it done.
That doubt seemed justified as Herriman soon found itself met with a fourth-and-5 scenario with 1:08 left on the clock. After offsetting penalties nullified Reynolds' making an illegal forward pass on the first attempt, the young sophomore knew he couldn't let his second chance slip away.
“We got it again and I was like, ‘Hey we’re going to do it. We’re going to win this,’” Reynolds said of his second opportunity.
On the ensuing play, Reynolds dropped back, then scrambled, before finding Noah Vaea breaking open just past the line of scrimmage. Vaea took the pass 41 yards downfield to set the Mustangs up at the Lone Peak 11-yard line with just under a minute remaining.
“I dropped back and I saw them coming and I was like, ‘I’m going to run it right up the middle,’” Reynolds said. “Number 90 then cut me off, so I turned around and saw Noah, so I popped it to him to make a play.”
Three plays later, Reynolds made his second critical play of the drive, finding David Fotu for an 11-yard gain to the 1-yard-line to set up Strasters' game-winning score.
“He’s a sophomore too and he went up for that ball. He wanted it,” Reynolds said of Fotu's catch.
Up until Herriman's game-winning drive, Lone had seized all the momentum and appeared posed to roll to the win.
Leading 10-0 at the half, Herriman squandered all of it when Lone Peak quarterback Talmage Gunther hit Tyson Doman for an 8-yard touchdown pass to give the Knights a 14-10 lead with 4:28 remaining.
Herriman didn't respond well immediately, providing a three-and-out before a punt to put it all on the defense.
Fortunately, the Mustang defense responded by issuing a three-and-out of its own.
"We knew we had to step it up and get a stop. It was on us," said Herriman defensive lineman Leki Fotu.
Key for Herriman was a strong first half where it got out to an early 10-0 lead with good ball control on offense.
“That was the game plan all along, to make these guys play from behind,” said Herriman coach Dustin Pearce. “And we knew if we did that, we knew they’d panic a little bit.”
As for executing Pearce's well-crafted game plan, the coach gave his players all the credit.
“These kids have never quit all year. They refuse to quit and it showed,” Pearce said. “It’s not about me. It’s about those kids believing in what I expected of them. That’s exactly what they did."
As for all those low on Herriman's chances to win it all, in the end, it was only those playing on the field, making it happen, that mattered.
"All the doubters — we believed in the locker room all year long that we were the best team in the state and that’s exactly what we proved," Pearce said.
Email: bgurney@desnews.com
Twitter: @BrandonCGurney