As expected, top seed Rich rolled past No. 4 seed Whitehorse on Friday in the 1A 8-player semifinal at SUU, 50-8, moving one step closer to a third straight state championship.
For Whitehorse, a moral victory was not the objective, but for a program appearing in its first semifinal in 30 years, the loss hardly takes away from a season that can only be described as a success.
“Yes, this is a big deal for the community,” said Whitehorse assistant coach Christopher Williams, who was the acting head coach Friday.
Whitehorse head coach Andrae Beard had emergency surgery last week before the Raiders’ quarterfinal playoff win over Utah Military Hill Field, and he missed the semifinal while he’s still recovering.
Williams said the team played for Beard in that quarterfinal win, and Beard was on the players’ minds again as the Raiders played their first semifinal game since 1995 — when they also lost to Rich, 53-12.
As the final score Friday indicated, Whitehorse was a big underdog heading into the semis, but it didn’t look that way early on. It neutralized Rich’s offense on several series, and then was able to pick up first downs of its own offensively.
“Yeah, they came out hungry, strong. It surprised me, because (Rich is) way bigger, and the offensive line is really big, and they were holding them up,” said Williams, whose team only trailed 6-0 after the first quarter.
Rich coach Tyson Larsen noticed the same thing.
“Honestly, I told them at halftime I was pretty disappointed, because I think Whitehorse came out harder than we did. We just had better individual efforts in the first half,” said Larsen.
For Rich, even though it started slowly in coming up empty on its first two offensive series, it found a groove in the second quarter, racing to the 36-0 halftime lead.
It outgained Whitehorse 291 yards to 134 yards in that opening half. The first downs were nearly identical, but Rich did the damage on the big scoring plays.
Of its seven touchdowns, three went for over 40 yards — 76, 44 and 48.
Rich quarterback Jett Holmes was involved with all three big plays. His 76-yard TD run gave the Rebels the 12-0 lead early in the second quarter, and just before halftime he connected with Karter Groll on a 44-yard TD pass that pushed the lead to 36-0.
Holmes helped open the scoring in the third quarter as he caught a 48-yard TD pass from Wilkes Weston, completing the hat trick of TDs.
“After that first quarter, luckily the kids started to play and honestly I was grateful, and I was proud of the way they responded after having such a poor first quarter,” said Larsen, whose team has won 16 straight games against Utah 8-player teams over the past three season.
Rich outgained Whitehorse 368-215 for the game.
Defensively, Rich’s Rylan Gough was a real standout for the Rebels, finishing with seven tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.
“He played hard and made a lot of big plays. One of our coaches made the joke that man, he was almost like he was on the other team he was in the backfield so much. Just credit to his effort, he brought it,” said Larsen.
With the win, Rich advances to the championship game next Saturday at 1 p.m. at Zions Bank Stadium against the Monticello-Milford winner.