High school football: Lone Peak’s defense shuts down Bingham in season-opening blanking

Lone Peak safety Jayden Mayberry locked on Bingham quarterback Aiden Dunn’s eyes as he rolled out of the pocket, snatched Dunn’s pass out of the warm August air and rumbled 43 yards the opposite direction for the first pick six of his high school career.

“I thought he was going to run the ball and he just threw it right to me,” Mayberry said. “Last year I didn’t get no pick sixes. I had a couple picks, just had to score.”

The Knights’ defense was stout from front to back in generating three interceptions, and dual threat quarterback Kepa Niumeitolu scored twice on the ground in Friday night’s season opener for a 21-0 shutout victory over Bingham.

“That’s your hope, but it’s probably not your expectation,” Lone Peak coach Bart Brockbank said of the shutout. “A lot of new guys on the field, little jitters. We made a number of mistakes but we flew around and played hard.”

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Lone Peak’s experience-laden secondary has earned some freedom to freelance. Mayberry said his coach trusts him to call coverages, and that he changes those coverages frequently to match up with receivers.

“Our secondary is all returning starters so they let us do whatever we want up front. They can cover whatever and allow us to get after the quarterback,” Brockbank said.

Lone Peak opened the scoring with Niumeitolu’s quarterback keeper as he rumbled behind an offensive line he called the “most underrated squad in the state” untouched to the left side of the end zone for a 7-0 Knights lead with 4:44 left in the first quarter.

“We didn’t put a lot of points on the board, but the defense came out,” Niumeitolu said. “Offense, we ran the ball when we wanted to because of the O-line, running backs balled out. I gotta just do better and get the ball to my receivers.”

Bingham’s offense sputtered despite a mix of approaches — aside from one chunk run from running back Isaac Larson — struggling throughout to push Lone Peak’s stout defensive front.

Knights defensive end Max Hamblin secured the first interception of the evening, sniffing out and gathering in a Bingham screen attempt to put the Knights on the doorstep.

Niumeitolu capitalized on the short field with a 3-yard option keeper scoring scamper to make it 14-0 with 7:18 remaining in the third quarter.

Mayberry’s pick six came on the ensuing Bingham drive with 5:59 left in the third quarter and put the game well out of reach.

Brockbank admitted that “you have no idea where you are” until you’re staring down an opponent across the line of scrimmage in live action, but that this year’s Lone Peak team is tough.

“We’ve got kids that play hard, that can fly around,” Brockbank said, “and as the momentum got going, they played better and better throughout the night even though we were a little tired in that first game.”