High school football: Rich trounces Monticello for repeat 1A 8-player state championship

Not much changed between Week 3 and Week 14 for Rich and Monticello’s high school football teams.

Back in August on a warm night in Monticello, Rich rolled past the Buckaroos, winning by five touchdowns. In the rematch in Saturday’s 1A 8-player state championship on a sunny and sometimes snowy afternoon in Cedar City, Rich again dominated and was five touchdowns better than Monticello.

The Rebels jumped out fast, scoring twice in the opening four minutes at Southern Utah University on its way to the easy 50-14 victory over underdog Monticello.

The teams met in last year’s title game, and it remained close until the fourth quarter. Saturday’s game was over almost as quickly as it began.

“We knew we were favored. Not disrespecting the other team, we knew we were the favorite so we told them, the way you win games when you’re not the underdog is you have the big brother mentality and you take it right away,” said Rich coach Tyson Larsen.

Rich has now won eight football state titles in school history, including back-to-back 8-player titles.

“Our coaches talked about being focused and going out and proving that we’re champions. We knew we could beat them because we had earlier in the season, and we just went out and accomplished our jobs,” said Rich’s Hudson Parry, who rushed for 144 yards and three touchdowns on just four carries.

As a team, Rich rushed for 312 yards while defensively it only allowed 73 yards on the ground.

“We limited their big players to not a lot of yards. We were able to keep (Carter) Rogers and Tavon Black to minimal gains so they didn’t make big plays to keep them in the game,” said Rogers.

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A year ago when these teams met in the state championship, the game was much more competitive with Rich only leading 21-14 in the third quarter. By halftime in the title-game rematch, Rich led comfortably 43-6 at the half.

Rich jumped out fast, scoring on its first offensive series on a Carter Hoffman 59-yard TD run straight through the middle of Monticello’s defense. Less than a minute later, Drake Weston returned a punt 50 yards for the 14-0 lead less than four minutes into the game.

Parry added two more touchdown runs in the first quarter as the Rebels stretched the lead to 26-0 by the end of the quarter.

“Our line had an amazing game. They blocked, they did everything, they were catching passes. They were opening massive holes for all of us and I really think that helped our game and led us to a championship,” said Parry.

In the second quarter, Hoffman tossed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Ryker Hoffman with Weston adding a TD run of his own to push the lead to 43-0.

Monticello finally got on the board on its 10th drive of the half as Rogers caught a three-yard TD pass from Jackson Keyes with 11 seconds left in the half.

Rich outgained Monticello 242 to 112 yards in the first half in addition to forcing three Monticello turnovers.

Both teams tacked on one more score in the second half, with Parry ripping off an 81-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter for the 50-6 lead.

“It’s the best feeling in the world. I know we’ve all put in the time and those holes are so open I can just run into the end zone,” said Parry.

Rogers added one more score for the Buckaroos, a 50-yard run with 4:48 remaining in the game. That one play accounted for 50 of Monticello’s 73 rushing yards.

Rich finished the game with 389 yards of total offense, while holding Monticello to just 250 yards.

“I’ve been really pleased with the kids this year and just how hard they’ve worked, and especially the work in the offseason. This senior class has had quite a bit of success ever since they’ve been playing together in little league in sixth grade, and they just put a lot of work and they have a lot heart early,” said Larsen.