Region 10 football: Crimson Cliffs, Snow Canyon finish regular season as region co-champs

Written by E. George Goold
October 12, 2022

ST. GEORGE — The Region 10 football schedule came to a close Wednesday night as Crimson Cliffs locked up a share of  the championship with a dominating win over Cedar on senior night at Washington Fields.

The Mustangs finished the regular season tied with idle Snow Canyon at the top of the Region 10 standings, with each team finishing 5-1 in region play.

Meanwhile, Desert Hills wrapped up its season with a blowout victory at home over Pine View, while Dixie won at Hurricane.

Both the Thunder and Flyers finished 4-2 in region play, tying for third place.

Following are recaps of Wednesday’s games. Final RPI rankings and 4A state tournament pairings are expected to be released Friday morning.

Crimson Cliffs 48, Cedar 24

Crimson put the game away early behind a 27-3 first half domination.

Crimson Cliffs defeats Cedar in a 4A Region 10 football game, Washington, Utah, Oct. 12, 2022 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News

Junior quarterback Steele Barben did not discriminate in his distribution of the pill, throwing seven touchdown passes to five different receivers in the victory.

Mason Topalian (19 yards, 2 yards) and Luke Childs (19 yards, 80 yards) each collected two touchdown tosses for Crimson while three other players were on the receiving end of single touchdown tosses from Barben: McCord Christiansen (15 yards), Owen Peterson (15 yards) and Boston Adamson (16 yards).

Cedar quarterback Koden Lunt had a strong second half, throwing three touchdown passes. Ammon York caught a 70-yard scoring bomb, Stockton Albrecht caught a 4-yard TD and Conner Hardman also grabbed a 4-yarder for a Cedar score.

Parker Kucifer’s 45-yard field goal rounded out the scoring for Cedar.

Desert Hills 42, Pine View 14

The Thunder left no doubt as the home team rolled to a 42-0 lead after three quarters of play.

Desert Hills defeats Pine View in a Region 10 football game, St. George, Utah, Oct. 12, 2022 | Photo by Aaron Crane, St. George News

Tyden Morris had two quick rushes for touchdowns (74 yards, 10 yards) and Ayzen Cummings caught an 18-yard TD pass from Noah Fuailetolo and Desert Hills led 21-0 after one quarter.

Two more scores in the second put the game out of reach when Morris had another rushing TD (1 yard) and Marcus Anderson ran for an 18-yard score as Desert Hills led 35-0 at halftime.

Kona Crowell’s 53-yard scoring scamper with one second left on the clock in the third quarter rounded out the Desert Hills attack. Xander Jones was a perfect 6-for-6 on extra point kicks for the winners.

Pine View kicker Kimball Swift made both of his extra point kicks as well, coming after two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

Tyler Brown threw a 5-yard TD to Blake Stucki and Abe Rosenlund threw a 13-yard touchdown toss to Matthew Costa to complete the scoring in the contest.

Dixie 24, Hurricane 14

At Hurricane, the Dixie Flyers scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, building an early 21-0 lead, then held on to defeat the Tigers, 24-14.

Hurricane receiver RJ Wright is stopped short of the goal line by Dixie’s Carter VanLehn, Hurricane, Utah, Oct. 12, 2022 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News

The Flyers got on the scoreboard just 17 seconds into the game, on Dixie’s first play from scrimmage. Will Morby ran the ball up the middle and to the left sideline for a 77-yard rushing touchdown. Kicker Johnny Bibiano’s extra-point try was good, giving the Flyers an early 7-0 lead.

Then, midway through the first quarter, Dixie quarterback Jalen Schultz completed a 4-yard TD pass to Blake Watson, pushing the lead to 14-0.

Then, a couple minutes later, following a Hurricane turnover, Schultz connected with receiver Jaxon Barben in the end zone for a 33-yard TD pass to make it 21-0.

In the second quarter, Hurricane capitalized on a Dixie turnover by mounting a 60-yard scoring drive that culminated in a 3-yard TD pass from Gerritt Grondel to Carter Ashby. Two key plays on that drive were a successful fourth-down conversion and a scrambling run by Grondel that put the Tigers inside Dixie’s 5-yard-line.

With a 21-7 lead and just three minutes left before halftime, Dixie drove within field goal range and Bibiano kicked a 25-yarder with 22 seconds left to make it 24-7 at the break.

Neither team scored in the third quarter and for most of the fourth, as both squads were unable to finish their offensive drives and ended up punting multiple times.

Then, with 2:39 left in the fourth, Hurricane made the only score of the second half on a trick play, as Grondel first pitched the ball to running back Ashby, who then threw it into the waiting arms of fellow senior RJ Wright in the end zone. Wright also converted his second PAT kick of the night, making it 24-14.

However, Hurricane’s ensuing onside kick attempt was recovered by the Flyers, who were then able to run out the clock to end the game. 

With the win, Dixie finishes the regular season with a 4-2 record in Region 10, 6-3 overall. Meanwhile, Hurricane dropped to 1-5 and 2-8.

– written by Jeff Richards

Final Region 10 football standings, as of Oct. 13 (region, overall)

  1. (tie) Crimson Cliffs 5-1, 8-2.
  2. (tie) Snow Canyon 5-1, 6-3.
  3. (tie) Desert Hills 4-2, 7-3.
  4. (tie) Dixie 4-2, 6-3.
  5. Cedar 2-4, 3-6.
  6. Hurricane 1-5, 2-8.
  7. Pine View 0-6, 0-8.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric George Goold came to St. George News from southwestern Colorado, where he was a radio news reporter. He has been a journalist for over 20 years in five different states. He graduated with a master's degree in English from Kansas State University and writes nonfiction as well. Goold has been published in Sunstone Magazine and has done multiple public readings about local history. When he has free time, he enjoys chess, movies and dogs.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews

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