Ridgeline put a stamp of confirmation Friday night on its bid as the top-ranked 4A football team in Utah.
The Riverhawks came down from their campus in Millville to the Salt Lake Valley, where Nate Dahle threw five touchdown passes – three to Graham Livingston – and the Riverhawks’ defense silenced Brighton 41-0 in a nonregion game.
“That was a fun one,” said Ridgeline coach Travis Cox, whose team improved to 3-0 and hasn’t really felt tested following wins over Morgan (34-14) and at Park City (39-3). “I really expected this to be closer. Brighton had our full attention. That was about as physical as we play.”
The Bengals have a lengthy history of big linemen and athletic running backs but this time it was excellence and athletic ability of the smaller school’s players that got everyone’s attention. Dahle looked calm and wasn’t pressured much while completing 16-of-23 passes for 200 yards. Ridgeline’s running backs combined for just 135 yards and half came on two plays when the Hawks’ line enforced its will.
“We came out and did what we wanted to do,” said Livingston, who doubles as a track star and has eight touchdowns already this season. “They were big up front but we found space in the secondary and made plays.”
Ridgeline converted two fourth-down plays on its second possession and took a 7-0 lead on a 40-yard pass from Dahle to Hunter Knighton. Dahle then found Livingston on touchdown throws of 36 and 14 yards that allowed the Riverhawks to score three more times in a six-minute span.
Brighton, meanwhile, had its early drives end on two punts, two interceptions, two fumbles, two failed fourth-down plays and untimely penalties. By halftime, the Bengals trailed 27-0 and coach Casey Sutera had to be wondering if it was a good idea to sandwich this game between matches against 6A powers Davis, Weber and Corner Canyon (in two weeks). He still feels Brighton can challenge for the Region 6 crown.
“I don’t regret it (the schedule),” he said. “We want to play the best to be our best. This is a tough one but we’ll be back. The score was not indicative of how close this game could have been.”
Even though Dahle’s fourth touchdown throw gave Ridgeline a 34-0 midway through the third quarter, the Bengals battled and gave their vocal crowd some hope. They threatened to score a couple of times but quarterback Ryce Palepoi had a pass dropped and barely missed open receivers on two other occasions that could have led to scores.
Sutera said he was not overly disappointed, despite Brighton suffering its worst loss since 2018.
“We’ll be back,” he said. “We want to keep improving and be playing our best at the end of the season. All of our goals are still ahead of us. We just have to learn from this.”
Ridgeline, meanwhile, boarded its bus for the trip home on a well-deserved high. Cox said he was concerned about just one injured player and his squad remains the team to beat as it goes into its Region 11 season that features plenty of Cache Valley rivalry games.
“It feels good to get past this one but we have plenty more to do if we want to finish on top,” Cox said. “Everything went right for us here.”