Kanab looked every bit the part of a No. 1 seed in a dominant performance in Saturday’s 1A semifinals at SUU.
Spurred on by an offense that scored every time it touched the ball in the first half and a stingy defense that limited North Summit to a paltry 130 yards in the first half, Kanab rolled to the 43-19 victory over No. 4 seed North Summit in a game that wasn’t even that close.
“it was the kind of game we just needed to take care of business, so we were able to do that and move on to the next round,” said Kanab coach JR Quarnberg.
The Cowboys advance to next Saturday’s 1A state championship with the victory and will face the Beaver-Duchesne winner at 7 p.m. at Zions Bank Stadium.
Kanab, which hasn’t won a state championship since 2007, beat both teams during the regular season in close games.
“It’s red versus blue no matter how you dice it up, so we’re excited for the opportunity to play in that game again, and we will do everything we can to prepare ourselves to get ready to go get it done,” said Quarnberg.
Kanab is a proud program with nine state championships in its history, but it’s been 18 years since the last title. Changing that narrative is something Quarnberg has talked a lot about with his players the last couple years.
“We took all the numbers down in our stadium, and we’re not going to put them back up till we get another one. It’s been 18 years, so most of these players and my three sons, they haven’t seen Kanab win a championship and that hurts bad, because this is a program with a lot of pride, so we’re very aware of that, and we’re ready to win another one,” said Quarnberg.
The last time Kanab won a championship, both Beaver and Kanab had nine championships in their trophy cases. Beaver now has 15, but Kanab is still stuck on nine, which will add to the intrigue if the teams meet in the final again like last year.
On Saturday, Kanab jumped out fast against North Summit, taking the opening drive 80 yards in three minutes, with Hayden Gubler scoring the first of his two first-half touchdowns for the early 8-0 lead.
North Summit matched the score on its first possession less than two minutes later as Knox Woolenstenhulme hauled in a 46-yard pass from Cru Richins. North Summit missed the two-point conversion, though, and still trailed 8-6.
Quarnberg was disappointed with the defense on that opening drive, but acknowledge North Summit’s offense takes a bit getting used to.
“That was an ugly start defensively, dang it,” he said. “We helped him out a little bit there, but we settled in.
“I think that triple option, it takes a minute to settle into, but we found our groove, and we’re able to execute on defense there.”
Kanab’s offense went right back to work. Quarterback Brogun Virostko connected with receivers Kyle Brown and Lattimer Glover on back-to-back possessions to stretch the lead to 23-6 early in the second quarter.
Gubler added an 92-yard touchdown run up the left sideline to stretch the lead to 30-6, and then Kolton Blomquist scored on a 1-yard plunge late in the half for the 37-6 lead.
Gubler finished with 161 yards on eight carries, leading the way for an offense that rushed for 340 total yards.
“He’s just an electric player,” Quarnberg said of Gubler. “He’s hard to get wrapped up and bring to the ground. He has a nice mix of speed and stability and just a little wiggle to him.”
Kanab tacked on a quick score to open the third quarter as Virostko tossed his third touchdown of the game, this one a 47-yarder to Glover for the 43-6 lead and the mercy-rule running clock.
Kanab finished with 466 yards of total offense aided by 6 of 9 third down conversions and 2 of 2 fourth-down conversions. North Summit finished with 275 yards, with 213 of those yards coming on the opening drive of the game and the final two scoring drives when the outcome had long been decided.
When it mattered most to try to slow Kanab’s momentum in the first half, North Summit simply couldn’t move the ball on the Cowboys’ stout defense.