High school football: Maddux Madsen tosses 5 TDs to pace American Fork past Roy in 6A second round

Box score

AMERICAN FORK — Second-round pairings in the 6A state football tournament were expected to be more difficult than last week’s openers, and the American Fork Cavemen’s plan to start quickly and avoid an early upset paved the way to a 66-45 win Friday over Roy.

Maddux Madsen threw five touchdown passes, Jaxon Gregory had a big night running the football and Fisher Ingersoll returned an interception for a touchdown as the Cavemen built a big first-quarter lead and then held off the Royals to advance to next week’s quarterfinal matchup at Herriman.

American Fork improved to 8-4 overall and earned its fifth win in its last six games. The Cavemen rolled to a 20-0 lead within the first eight minutes and then endured a determined Roy rally that kept the home crowd in the stadium after sunset, even when the local temperature plummeted.

“We knew that, in the second round of the playoffs, there are no easy games,” said American Fork coach Aaron Behm. “Jaxon Gregory had a big game, and it was a big deal for us to run the ball when things went sideways.”

1 of 14

2 of 14

3 of 14

4 of 14

5 of 14

6 of 14

7 of 14

8 of 14

9 of 14

10 of 14

11 of 14

12 of 14

13 of 14

14 of 14

Madsen had three touchdown throws, and Gregory had a pair of scoring runs by midway through the second quarter, when the Cavemen took a 42-7 lead. Roy coach Fred Fernandez admitted that he was concerned if his team could ever stop them.

Roy never really did, but they managed a few big plays to throw a scare into the home team.

Izzie Gordon broke loose on an 80-yard run and then Mason Thueson caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from Jaxson Dart to get the comeback started. The Royals then stopped an American Fork drive by recovering a fumble at the goal line, and Dart led a quick scoring drive that ended with a 43-yard field goal by Britton Watts just before halftime.

“I hoped that field goal would be a big deal for us,” Fernandez said. “We needed to create our breaks and get some momentum to have a chance, and that was a big one.”

The Royals had more plans in the second half. Trailing 49-24, it took them only one minute to continue cutting into the lead. They recovered a Madsen fumble and scored again five plays later. Roy then recovered an onside kick and might have scored again, except Ingersoll tipped away a pass that would have got Roy into the red zone.

The Royals had to punt and Gregory had five carries for 35 yards on a time-consuming drive that ended with a field goal by Spencer Nielsen.

On Roy’s next drive, American Fork’s defense stiffened again and Noah Moeaki ended that threat with a diving interception.

Two plays later, Madsen found his favorite target — Devin Downing — for a touchdown and the Cavemen could breathe easier with a 59-35 lead.

”If we only could have got within one score, this game might have been different,” Fernandez said. “But they are a great offensive team. They were the better team tonight.”

Roy, the Region 1 champion that defeated Northridge last week in the first round, finished with a 7-4 record. Fernandez noted, however, that his team is full of juniors and expects to be a contender again in 2020.