In the middle of a preseason road gauntlet with uncharacteristic wobbles, Corner Canyon found its footing with a big second quarter to top 6A foe Bingham Friday night.
The Chargers pounced on a fumbled exchange and Drew Patterson punched in a short touchdown run to combine with two Isaac Wilson touchdown passes to score 21 unanswered points and shift momentum just before the break on the way to a 38-28 victory over Bingham.
“That was huge,” Corner Canyon coach Eric Kjar said. “That was a big turn and then we were able to get a couple more right after that which was big.”
After a Corner Canyon field goal opened the scoring, Patterson converted his first scoring touch of the night — rumbling untouched for the 15-yard touchdown and an early 10-0 lead with 3:34 left in the opening quarter.
Bingham answered immediately after a big kick return, quarterback Dallen Martinez scampering on a draw to the sideline for an 8-yard touchdown to make it 10-7.
The Chargers pieced together a balanced 13-play drive afterward but were stopped just outside the goal line with a turnover on downs. Martinez fumbled the exchange on the next play, shifting the energy right back to Corner Canyon for Patterson’s second scoring tote of the night.
“He ran great today and our line, with most of our run schemes, they did a really good job,” Kjar said.
Bingham stalled out and Wilson went to work first with a 21-yard strike to Quinn Hale before doubling up with a wide-open toss down the seam to Jackson Ames for the 31-7 lead heading into halftime.
“First half, pretty good for our whole offense,” Wilson said. “Second half, I felt like we could have picked it up a little bit better but overall a good performance.”
Corner Canyon’s offense went dormant to open the third quarter and Bingham capitalized with a tough Maddax Peck catch in a sea of Charger defensive backs to set up a 9-yard score from Carson Subury. Sudbury broke several tackles en route to the end zone to make it 31-14.
Wilson got it going again and tossed his third and final touchdown of the night to Tate Kjar who took a short screen for a 14-yard score to increase Corner Canyon’s lead to 38-14 with 3:33 left in the third quarter.
Martinez put the Bingham offense on his back with another big gain through the air before taking a quarterback draw the distance for a 16-yard score. After another Corner Canyon turnover on downs, Havea Fotu found daylight and ran untouched for an 11-yard touchdown to get the Miners within 10, 38-28.
Neither offense gained a foothold as the fourth quarter wound down and Corner Canyon leaned on Patterson to close out the victory.
After three games of a blowout victory, a blowout loss and a staved off comeback, Kjar said the Chargers are still seeking consistency and rounding into form.
“Definitely made some progress. At times we look really good and other times, I’ve been frustrated and I know they are too,” Kjar said. “It’s not like they’re trying to play bad. I know they’re trying, but we can clean a lot of stuff up still.”