ST. GEORGE — The conventional wisdom in football is that pressuring the quarterback leads to great success, and pressuring the quarterback usually comes from blitzing.
But not this time.
Using a standard four-man rush, with nary a blitz in sight, Desert Hills harassed 4A’s top passer to the tune of five sacks, numerous pressures and three interceptions as the Thunder captured the 4A state football championship 30-14 over Crimson Cliffs Friday night at Utah Tech’s Greater Zion Stadium.
Steele Barben, who had passed for more than 2,800 yards and 37 touchdowns for the Region 10 champion Mustangs during the regular season, couldn’t get into a rhythm for Crimson Cliffs.
He finished with 237 passing yards in the game but threw just one touchdown and had three of his tosses picked off by Desert Hills defenders.
The Mustangs outgained the Thunder 335-284 in total offense, but the three turnovers and three failures on fourth-down conversion attempts, including an ill-fated fake punt in the third quarter, were too much to overcome.
“I’m just so proud of this defense,” said Desert Hills coach Rick Berry. “We knew we had to give them different looks. They played so hard, our front four. I can’t say enough about the job they did, putting pressure on the quarterback.”
Using the combination of a tenacious defense and an irrepressible running game, the Thunder had the Mustangs shut out at halftime.
Desert Hills scored on the opening drive of the game with a touchdown pass from Noah Fuailetolo to Lincoln Holmes from 8 yards out (though the extra point was no good), then forced a three-and-out with stout defense, including the first sack of the game.
The Thunder added a 33-yard field goal by Xander Jones, and that would be the sum total of the scoring in the first half.
“We game-planned all week,” said Desert Hills defender Hunter Clark. “We needed to give (Barben) a bunch of different looks because he’s got a great IQ, so we just switched it up and everything was there.
“We played our hearts out.”
Many thought the key to the game might be the passing of Fuailetolo as he missed the game earlier this season that was won by the Mustangs, but it was running back Tyden Morris who was the key factor.
Morris rushed for 94 yards and a score and caught three first down passes in the game.
“He’s an animal,” Holmes said. “He plays so hard and takes so many hits, but he never gets hurt. I don’t know how he does it.”
Fuailetolo said he didn’t mind that Morris and the defense owned the spotlight.
“I’m super proud of this team for coming out and just playing with all they had,” he said. “It’s seriously a special win. Being my senior year, this is the last one I’ll play, so this is a memorable one for sure.”
The start of the second half offered the Mustangs a chance to climb back in the game. Down 9-0, Crimson Cliffs got the ball first to start the third quarter, but after one first down, the Desert Hills defense forced a couple of incompletions and a punt.
A few minutes later, Beau Wall ran in a short TD dive to make it 16-0.
Crimson Cliffs made a little noise early in the fourth quarter with Mason Topalian rushing in a score with 10:58 left in the game, but a two-point conversion try was unsuccessful and moments later, Desert Hills returned the Crimson Cliffs kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, pushing the lead to 23-6 and stamping out any hopes of a comeback for the Mustangs.
After an interception set up a Morris TD rush, the Mustangs were finally able to get the passing game going as Barben hit Boston Adamson on a fade in the corner of the end zone to make it 30-14, but it was too little, too late.
The Thunder have their third state title in football in school history, finishing the season at 10-3 and on a six-game winning streak.
Holmes, Cyrus Polu and Javiyen Cummings all had interceptions in the game for Desert Hills.
The Mustangs also ended up 10-3 on the season.