Corner Canyon quarterback Isaac Wilson is familiar with carving up defensive secondaries with his arm, but his legs kept the Chargers’ offense churning Friday to survive a 6A quarterfinals test and top Lone Peak, 35-21.
With the game tied 14-14 after halftime, Wilson rolled for an 11-yard touchdown, the Chargers defense nabbed an interception and big offensive lineman Zion Finau scored on a short dive in three consecutive possessions to carve out some breathing room on the way to securing a 6A semifinals spot.
“It’s nice being able to run around and everyone vacates because everyone hates guarding our Air Raid,” Wilson said. “It helps out.”
Corner Canyon opened the scoring with a trademark efficient drive, including converting two fourth down attempts. Wilson capped it off with a 21-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Drew Whatcott.
Lone Peak went to work with the tandem of tough running from Brooks Wilde and a few tough Jackson Blake throws, methodically marching on a 15-play drive to drain clock and keep the ball out of Wilson’s hands.
Blake rolled out and found tight end Mason Thorpe for a 6-yard touchdown pass in a sea of Corner Canyon hands to knot the game up 7-7 with 2:54 left in the first quarter.
The Knights defense forced Wilson to drop his eyes and run through a combination of pass rush and tight coverage of the Chargers’ deep routes. Corner Canyon coach Eric Kjar said he’s always tried to have a quarterback who can make plays with his legs and attributed leaning on Wilson’s option run ability to negate the Knights’ rush.
“We knew it was going to be tough and I think our kids know that, too. (The Knights) play good football, they’re good defensively and they have a good secondary,” Kjar said. “We were concerned about them. It’s a talented team and they have some kids that can play.”
After a turnover on downs, a hurried Blake tossed up an interception to defensive back Brock White. Four plays later, Wilson punished the mistake with a 27-yard delayed screen touchdown toss to running back Bryton Brady for a 14-7 Corner Canyon lead.
Lone Peak made a change at quarterback after the Blake turnover to Luke Christensen, who converted two fourth down tries en route to an 8-yard incredible scoring catch from wide receiver Jasean Mayberry. Mayberry went up strong and tiptoed the back of the end zone to tie it back up 14-14 at half.
Defensively, the Chargers tightened up as the third quarter dawned, and a forced punt led to Wilson’s 11-yard scoring scamper to make it 21-14.
“Our d-line got going, put some pressure on those guys and made the quarterback move around a little bit,” Kjar said. “That was huge.”
Immediately after that drive, Crew Staley nabbed a Christensen desperation heave on third and long.
“I saw him coming in my zone, the ball went up and I just picked it out of the air,” Staley said. “With the game tied 14-14, we needed to get back and we had a good play to get it going.”
The Chargers chewed up the gifted short field and Finau barreled in from a yard out to make it 28-14 with 4:28 left in the third quarter.
Both offenses stalled repeatedly until Christensen responded with a perfectly lofted 13-yard pass to Trey Robinson to reduce the deficit to 28-21 with 7:03 left in the game.
Wilson, however, took the air out of the ball and milked nearly five minutes off the clock with a host of keepers before Brady followed a lead block up the middle for the decisive 9-yard score and the 35-21 lead with 2:01 remaining.
Next up for Corner Canyon is a trip to Rice-Eccles Stadium, an occurrence as familiar as snow in a Utah winter forecast.
“It’s really surreal,” Wilson said. “We’re not done yet. We aren’t. We’ve got to keep competing and keep coming out faster with more energy and more efficiently.”