High school football: Cedar overcomes slow start, beats Manti for first 3A title in 75 years

Cedar High School played its first-ever football game back in 1949. Fast forward 75 years and over 750 games later, and the program finally has a state championship banner to hang.

Cedar outlasted Manti 41-35 in a wildly-entering 3A state championship game on Saturday at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman. The teams combined for nearly 1,100 yards of total offense and only three punts as Cedar picked up three first downs in the final four minutes to run out the clock on an improbable undefeated 13-0 season.

“We’ve got four years of hard work and just continuing to put the work in even though it didn’t pay off, going 4-7 for three years in a row. To see all the work that we put in over the years and learning to start winning this year, I don’t know if there’s a better feeling in the world,” said Cedar quarterback Everett Kelling.

Tye Hiatt has only been the head coach at Cedar for two years, but he changed the culture quickly.

“I just think for those kids to buy into maybe a little bit different standard and a little bit more accountability, it was pretty amazing to see that. I’m happy for those kids,” said Hiatt.

In its previous 74 years, Cedar had only ever played in three state championship games prior to Saturday (1958, 1961 and 1998).

After the game, an exhausted Kelling told reporters how he felt physically after carrying the ball 28 times for 225 yards and four touchdowns.

“Oh, this is the worst I’ve hurt probably my entire high school life,” he said. “But you know what, whatever it takes. We ended up getting the W.”

His last rushing TD gave Cedar the 41-27 lead with 6:09 remaining in the game, and even though Manti scored quickly to whittle the lead to 41-35 with all three timeouts remaining, Kelling helped his team pick up two clutch first downs to run out the clock on the win.

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“If we need me to throw the ball 50 times to win, we’ll throw the ball. If you need me to run the ball a ton, we’ll run the ball. Big credit to our guys up front for just keep going, keep attacking them the whole time,” said Kelling.

Cedar finished with 495 yards of total offense, while Manti racked up 596 total yards.

The offensive outburst was hardly a surprise.

When these teams met two months ago in a regular season game, Cedar scored 22 unanswered points to pull away for the 51-27 win in a game with over 1,000 yards of total offense.

Cedar never trailed in that game, but that certainly wasn’t the case in the championship rematch.

In the Reds’ first five possessions, they punted three times and fumbled once as they fell behind 21-7 when Manti’s Ty Pringle hauled in a 63-yard TD pass from Carter Mason with 4:58 left in the first half.

Pringle’s 82-yard touchdown run had given Manti the 14-0 in the first quarter.

Even after going down 21-7, Cedar’s offense stalled on its next possession and it had to punt again. Things were looking bleak for the Reds, but Hiatt credits his players for remaining even-keeled.

“I just think it goes back to, like, our kids’ mentality of you play the next play. Good, bad, indifferent, you just try to tee it up and you try to play the best that you can, and I felt our kids did that,” said Hiatt.

Cedar got a big break when Manti fumbled the ball down inside its red zone after a long run — one of three fumbles for the Templars on the day. After nearly going down three TDs, Cedar marched 96 yards in under four minutes as Kelling scored on a 1-yard TD run just before halftime, cutting the deficit to 21-14.

“We just never quit. I mean, I know it sounds really cliche, but I just think it’s the truth that we just attacked each and every day, giving our best, our team motto, pulling the rope. We’re pulling the rope each day,” said Kelling.

A theme emerged on that drive, too — Cedar’s offensive front was slowly taking over the game.

Cedar never punted after halftime, and it picked up so many yards on first and second down that it only had four third downs in the entire second half despite running 34 plays.

The Reds scored every time they had the ball in the second half except for their final victory formation drive.

Cedar tied the game 21-21 early in the third quarter on a Braxton Demille 2-yard run. After Manti turned the ball over on downs, Kelling gave Cedar the lead for good at 28-21 on a 4-yard score with 58 seconds left in the third quarter.

Manti’s offense had a perfect response, driving 74 yards in nine plays, with Carter Mason scoring on a 12-yard TD, cutting the lead to 28-27 after the missed extra point.

Mason had a huge game offensively in the loss for Manti as he passed for 347 yards and three TDs and also added that rushing score.

Cedar’s unstoppable offense quickly scored to push the lead to 34-27 as Dylan Cowley hauled in a Kelling pass and weaved through defenders up the sideline for the 29-yard TD reception.

Manti’s offense fumbled the ball away on its next possession, and two plays later Cedar was in the end zone for a fifth straight time on Kelling’s fourth touchdown run of the game.

The Templars responded quick with another score, but the defense could never get the ball back as the Reds ran out the clock.

Hiatt believes nerves played a big part of his team’s slow start in the first half, but it avoided that dagger fourth TD by Manti and just stuck with it.

“And I think that we just had to settle down. … Cedar hadn’t played a state championship since ‘98, so I just think that for those kids, they’ve never been in this moment. This crowd’s never been in that moment," Hiatt said.

“All of these kids, we talked about ’98, they weren’t born yet. A lot of our parents weren’t married yet, so I just think we had a little bit of nerves, and once we settled down a little bit, I thought our kids did a great job.”