SALT LAKE CITY — Sky View has been one of the best defensive teams in 4A this season, but it also knew facing Dixie’s potent offense in the 4A semifinals on Friday night would be arguably its toughest test of the season.
“Super impressed with the way our kids played in the second half. I thought it was a complete turnaround.” — Sky View coach Chris Howell
Sky View didn’t exactly pass that test throughout the first half as Dixie scored touchdowns on three of its first four possessions of a highly-entertaining, tied game at the half.
Everything changed after halftime.
Sky View’s coaches made the necessary offensive and defensive adjustments at the half and ran away from the Flyers in the second half to easily march into next week’s 4A state championship with a 49-21 victory at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“Super impressed with the way our kids played in the second half. I thought it was a complete turnaround,” said Sky View coach Chris Howell.
With the win, the Bobcats advance to next week’s state championship against Park City, just the second championship game appearance for in program history, the other coming in a loss back in 1987.
One of the biggest keys to that turnaround was a simple adjustment defensively at halftime. Dixie racked up 245 yards of total offense in the first half, and the coaching staff switched to a 4-3 defense to try and get more pressure on Dixie quarterback Reggie Graff, who completed 12 of 14 passes for 189 yards in the first half.
With that added pressure, Graff only completed 3 of 13 passes in the second half, including one interception and two sacks.
“We came out and got one stop and got our defense energized a little bit, and then we got our running game in the fourth quarter especially,” said Howell, who said his players just started to relax and play naturally after halftime.
- Watch replay: Sky View 49, Dixie 21
Sky View went ahead for good at the 6:44 mark of the third quarter as Brigham Lewis hauled in a 27-yard TD pass from Kason Carlsen to put his team ahead 28-21.
In the fourth quarter, it was all about the running game.
After getting a big fourth-down stop to halt a promising Dixie drive, Sky View quickly marched the other way with Mason Falslev capping the 94-second drive with a 51-yard TD run for the 35-21 lead.
At the 4:25 mark, he added a 20-yard TD run and then Carlsen put the finishing touches on the blowout win with a 9-yard TD run with 3:04 left in the game.
Falslev finished the game with 118 rushing yards, 60 receiving yards and 63 passing yards as he also threw a TD pass in the first quarter on a halfback pass to Lewis.
“Everybody knows who Mason is — he’s a special talent. The cool thing about Mason is he wanted the ball going down the stretch there. We actually had a bad snap there and turned it into a touchdown. Just a really special kid, great leader, just a tremendous asset,” said Howell.
After getting outgained in the first half 245 yards to 150, Sky View flipped that narrative in dominant fashion in the second half, racking up 258 yards of total offense to just 109 for Dixie.
Howell thought one of the biggest defensive keys to the game is how his team bottled up Dixie’s rushing attack.
Graff and Preston Moore combined to rush for over 2,100 yards this season, and even though Moore racked up 108 yards and a score on Friday, Graff didn’t have any yards as Sky View’s defensive line bottled him up the entire game.