In a much-hyped up contest that was a rematch of the 2A state playoff semifinal from a year ago, the defending champ San Juan Broncos continued their dominance over the Summit Academy Bears on Friday.
This time, it was with an offensive juggernaut of a performance from quarterback Parker Snyder, who guided his team to a 42-28 win.
Snyder had a game to remember, throwing for three touchdowns while scoring one himself and helping out on defense with an interception to cap his night.
“Parker is an absolute stud. People want to talk about Jayce Palmer and I don’t want to take anything away from him because he was really good for us last year, but people need to take notice of Parker Snyder because he’s the real deal,” said San Juan head coach Barkley Christensen.
It looked like the game was going to turn into a blowout early on, as Snyder found receiver Jersey Nieves deep down the sideline in the 1 st quarter, connecting on a 65-yard bomb to open up the scoring.
Just a few minutes later, Snyder found Nieves again on almost the exact same play with another deep ball, this time going 60 yards on the play to double the lead.
A 21-yard touchdown run by running back Zach Conway opened up a 21-0 advantage, and it seemed like San Juan was well on its way to another lopsided victory over its region rivals.
Summit made thing somewhat interesting in the second half, taking advantage of a few turnovers and penalties on the part of San Juan.
“I thought we started out hot and looked really good. We’re like a roller coaster where when things are good then things are really good and when things go down its pretty bad,” Christensen said.
“We just have to clean up some things and get some consistency, but overall it was a good performance.”
Summit quarterback Devin Watson did all that he could to give his team a fighting chance, throwing for
four touchdowns in the second half. In the end however, Snyder and the San Juan defense proved to be too much.
“All the guys on the team are awesome. I’m surrounded by such great guys. My line blocks great and there’s multiple guys on the team that are constantly making big plays for us,” Snyder said.
While Snyder was clearly the key on the night, Conway did plenty as well by rushing for two touchdowns and grabbing one through the air.