It was a long bus ride home for the Riverton Silverwolves last week and an even longer week that followed, recovering from a disappointing loss at Dixie, but it gave coach Jody Morgan’s team ample opportunity to recover and focus on its next opponent — the Cyprus Pirates.
On Friday night, the Silverwolves took only two offensive plays to score their first touchdown, and their focus remained as they played perhaps the best half of football in in school history, rolling to a 56-6 non-region victory on the Pirates’ home field.
Tegan Morton threw for 220 yards and four touchdowns, Beaux Robert blocked a punt that led to a score and Talon Parker had three nice punt returns as Riverton took a 49-0 lead at halftime and coasted through a shortened second half, which was played with a running clock due to the UHSAA’s “mercy rule.”
“We were ready to play, and everyone was excited to see everybody to well in this game,” said coach Morgan. “We wanted to show that we weren’t the same team as last week. We were anxious to get another game under our belt.”
Cyprus, which entered the game undefeated (2-0), was outplayed throughout. The Pirates could not contain Riverton’s running attack, and Tegan Morgan was often free to roll out and find open receivers. Early in the game, he said tight end Owen Barton approached him and said, “Find me. I’ll be open on a post, and I’ll take it the rest of the way.”
Tegan Morgan connected with Brayden Preston and Logan Dunfield for first-quarter scores, then found Barton open on a 31-yard touchdown for a 28-0 lead early in the second quarter. Barton’s visit to his quarterback on the bench came shortly afterward. It had to wait a few minutes, though, because Bryson DuPaix recovered Roberts’ punt block in the end zone that led to another easy score.
After the Silverwolves let a 13-7 lead slip away last week in St. George, no points were enough on this night.
“I saw him (Barton). He’s a big guy, but I couldn’t loft it because he had a guy right on him, so I fired it in there, and he did the rest of it,” Tegan Morgan said.
Barton, in fact, escaped his defender and then broke several other tackles for a 35-0 lead.
At that point, Riverton had so much momentum, it could do nothing wrong. By half, the Silverwolves out-gained Cyprus in total yards 340-62. The Pirates also didn’t help themselves with penalties, which coach Tyler Garcia likely didn’t see in earlier wins over Tooele and Highland.
The Pirates finally scored in the third quarter, taking advantage of a muffed Riverton punt, and several important runs by quarterback Skyler Armenta, a 6-foot-4 leader who also excels on the Cyprus wrestling team.
Riverton’s defense, though, kept him in check for much of the game, and the resulting effort should have made the quick trip back to RHS a lot more festive than the trip home the week before.
Easton Hicks added 88 yards on just five rushes for Riverton. Dunfield was the leader of five receivers who caught passes for the Silverwolves. Barton had just two catches, but made the most of them.