Bronco defense shines in 26-7 victory over Grantsville in 2025 football season opener

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School football team exacted some revenge this past Friday, August 15 on the team that ended their 37-game winning streak a year ago.
The Broncos scored just two minutes into the opening game of the 2025 season and only trailed for four minutes, beating the Grantsville Cowboys 26-7 at Snow College’s Terry Foote Stadium in Ephraim.
The win snapped a three-game winning streak for Grantsville in the series going back to 2019, and it’s also the first time a Barkley Christensen-coached team has beaten the Cowboys.
Sophomore quarterback Beau Yeomans threw for 338 yards in his first-ever varsity start and was 26-of-45 on the night. He ran for a touchdown late in the third quarter to put the Broncos up by 13 points.
Senior running back Jagger Nieves carried the ball 25 times for 114 yards and scored three rushing touchdowns. He was equally impressive through the air, catching nine Yeomans passes for 128 yards in the win.
San Juan received the opening kickoff and marched right down the field to score on the Cowboys with a very impressive two-minute drive. Nieves capped it off with a strong 21-yard TD run right up the middle.
It was as you might expect the first game of the season to go – a little sloppy at times with some greatness sprinkled in for good measure. The teams combined to turn the ball over six times in the first half.
Grantsville scored on the first play of the second quarter when third-year quarterback Dallan Van Vliet hit Jaxxon Jensen with a nine-yard touchdown pass. The Cowboys added the extra point to take a 7-6 lead.
San Juan answered just over four minutes later when a couple of long Yeomans passes to Tripp Palmer and Nieves set them up with first and goal at the Grantsville five.
Nieves rumbled into the end zone with the ball, giving the Broncos a 12-7 advantage. Following the touchdown, San Juan’s two-point conversion attempt failed.
But the five-point lead was all the Broncos needed and they never relinquished the lead again in the game.
Though the offense didn’t put up the scoring numbers San Juan fans have grown accustomed to over the past four seasons, the defense picked up right where they left off last season, shutting the Cowboys down entirely in the second half.
They gave Van Vliet trouble all game long, providing lots of pressure and forcing errant passes throughout the night. Nache Young, Grady Lacy, and Bronx Black intercepted one pass apiece from the Grantsville quarterback.
George McNaughtan led the defense with ten tackles, and the 2024 sack leader picked up right where he left off, sacking Van Vliet three times. Stetson Black and Thomas Hardin got one sack each in the game.
Tripp Palmer and Jagger Nieves collected eight tackles apiece. Jonas Jeppesen and Kai Fox got seven stops apiece, and Fox recovered a Grantsville fumble in the second quarter.
The strong defensive play kept the Cowboys off the board in the second half, providing Yeomans an opportunity to score his very important rushing touchdown with 1:28 left in the third quarter, stretching the Broncos’ lead to 20-7.
Nieves added one final tally to close out the victory with 5:02 remaining in the game. Though Tripp Palmer didn’t tally on the scoreboard, he put a big dent on the field with his 152 yards receiving.
Following the game Bronco Head Coach Barkley Christensen expressed how proud he was of his players. “We’re excited to get that win, and to do it with such young kids and the way they battled, I’m proud of our guys,” he stated.
Christensen also observed that the game was “really ugly”, which isn’t too much of a surprise in the first game of the season, and that the team can learn a lot from how they played against Grantsville.
The team is set for their second tough matchup in a row this Friday, August 22 when the Beaver Beavers come to Blanding looking to take a bite out of the Broncos.
Beaver has been hungrily awaiting the opportunity to meet San Juan again since the Utah High School Activities Association moved them to the 1A classification in the 2023 season.
It’s guaranteed that everyone in that little town on I-15 remembers the 41-21 loss they suffered against San Juan in the 2022 state championship game, their second straight title-game loss to the Broncos.
San Juan leads the all-time series with Beaver 24-8 going back to 1981 and has won the last five matchups since 2018, but the Beavers are the defending 1A State Champions.
It should be a lot of fun when the two tough, evenly-matched teams renew their rivalry on the San Juan High School football field this Friday.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and you can catch all the action live starting at 6:30 on StreamUtah.Live and Redrock 92 Radio.