Something had to give in the second half, right?
Beaver and Duchesne were scoreless at the half in their highly-anticipated 1A semifinal, but surely the offenses couldn’t keep sputtering in the second half, right?
Ironically enough, it was Beaver’s defense that lit the fire with three turnovers, and from there the offense took over as the Beavers beat Duchesne 24-14 at Southern Utah university.
“We had some guys step up and make plays. Our defense had some huge turnovers there in the second half that we forced, and was probably the difference of the game,” said Beaver coach Jonathan Marshall.
Beaver never trailed in the second half after scoring first, always having a response when Duchesne cut into that deficit in the second half.
“We went and won the game instead of just ‘OK, let’s see if we can hold on.’ I think we went and won it,” said Marshall.
With the victory, Beaver advances to its seventh straight 1A state championship next Saturday against top seed Kanab at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman at 7 p.m.
Beaver’s only two losses of the regular came against Duchesne and Kanab, and after beating Duchesne on Saturday, the Beavers have a chance to complete their redemption tour in the championship game against Kanab.
In its past six state championship game appearances, Beaver is 4-2, with wins in 2019, 2020, 2023 and 2024.
Getting back there is something Marshall said the program never takes for granted.
“It’s great, and especially because the caliber team Duchesne is,” Marshall said. “They’re a phenomenal team. They beat us in the regular season up at their place.
“We got so much respect for them, and so to me, the fact that we are getting to play for state after beating such a good team, I’m really proud of.”
In the scoreless first half in which the teams combined for 175 yards of total offense, Marshall thought penalties really killed his team’s momentum and forced several long yardage situations.
“We killed ourselves with penalties. It seems for our team, if we can avoid that we are very tough to beat, but we shoot ourselves in the foot there,” said Marshall.
Beaver finally halted the scoreless deadlock five minutes into the third quarter on a 22-yard field goal by Emmet Lurth. The Beavers gained possession deep in Duchesne territory on a play equivalent to a turnover after the Eagles’ punter put his knee on the ground trying to scoop up a low snap.
Three minutes later Beaver extended the lead to 10-0 on a Davin Orton 14-yard touchdown run. Once again, the Beavers had the luxury of excellent starting field position after Max Albrecht dove to snag an interception on a quick slant rout pass by Duchesne at the 36 yard line.
The deficit seemed to finally light a fire in Duchesne’s offense, too. It marched right down and made it a 10-7 game on a tremendous 10-yard TD reception by Kade Thacker on the sideline in traffic as he tapped one foot down before being knocked out of bounds with 1:54 left in the third.
The momentum didn’t last long.
Beaver responded with a quick scoring drive that ended with Dub Pender racing untouched into the end zone after receiving a pitch from Orton to extend the lead to 17-7 with 11:18 remaining.
Duchesne kept fighting and again trimmed it to a one-possession game with 5:20 left as Nashden Goodliffe connected with Brex Robinson on a 28-yard touchdown pass, cutting the deficit to 17-14.
Beaver’s offense stayed aggressive on effectively won the game one play later.
On a play-action pass, Orton hit Lurth in stride on a skinny post after he’d slipped behind Duchesne’s secondary, and Lurth outraced everyone to the end zone for the 76-yard touchdown and the 24-14 lead with only 5:01 remaining.
Beaver then sealed the game with one more Albrecht interception, the third takeaway of the game for the Beavers.