Broncos dominate Millard for sixth straight win

Following the San Juan football team’s win over South Sevier on September 17, Bronco head coach Barkley Christensen said his team still had not peaked and he was still waiting for them to put together a complete four-quarter effort.

This past Friday, September 24, on homecoming night against the Millard Eagles, they took great strides toward achieving those goals. The Broncos dominated from start to finish to beat Millard 41-7 and improve to 6-1 on the season.

It was San Juan’s sixth win in a row and their third straight blowout win. They’ve outscored their opponents 139-17 in the last three games.

If it weren’t for a garbage-time touchdown late in the game on Friday, it would have been a 41-0 shutout. After the game, Coach Christensen called it a “complete team effort” that they were proud of.

Homecoming festivities – which can sometimes distract young football players – were not a factor. San Juan showed up ready to play from the opening kickoff and took care of business throughout the night.

They held the Eagles to a three-and-out on the first possession of the game, then opened the scoring almost immediately thereafter on a 22-yard pass from Jace Palmer to Cooper Black, who was completely uncovered in the end zone.

Black caught another Palmer touchdown pass two minutes into the second quarter, then seven minutes later Landon Black took a screen pass 41 yards to the end zone for the Broncos’ third TD of the night.

San Juan added two more scores in the third quarter to earn a running clock before Bronson Snyder caught the final touchdown pass from 17 yards out with 4:47 left in the game.

The junior varsity squads for both teams closed out the game from there, and that’s when Millard finally used a couple chunk plays to quickly move down the field and spoil the shutout with a late TD.

Palmer again threw for more than 200 yards and added five more touchdown passes. He has 25 passing TDs on the season now, which is tied for sixth in the nation and an average of 3.6 per game. He completed 19 of his 30 attempts against Millard (63 percent).

Cooper Black caught two of the touchdown passes. Ladd Ivins, Landon Black, and Bronson Snyder spread the remaining three amongst themselves.

Ivins led the Broncos with 77 receiving yards on nine catches, Cooper Black ended the night with 68 yards on five catches, and Landon Black caught three passes for 48 yards.

Jensen Grover was once again Mr. Reliable, rushing for 128 yards on 17 carries and the only rushing touchdown of the night. Jace Palmer carried eight times for 55 yards and Landon Black had 47 yards on three carries.

Defensively, San Juan was lights-out again, allowing Millard (unofficially) just 146 yards of total offense. Before the JV players came onto the field, the Broncos had allowed a minuscule 34 yards total.

Magnum Nielson racked up 12 tackles on the night. Tyler Bayles sacked Millard quarterback Sam Rasmussen three times to move ahead of Bronson Snyder in that department with 12 – tied for fifth nationwide.

San Juan remains #3 in 2A football with the win behind 7-0 South Summit and 7-0 defending state champion Beaver. The three teams are separated by just .067 points in the RPI standings.

The two weeks at home were nice, but now the Broncos will hit the road again for back-to-back weeks and the last two road trips of the regular season.

Looming in a couple weeks is their visit to Beaver to take on the defending champs, but first up is the Delta Rabbits this Friday, October 1.

Delta is 2-5 on the year, ranked seventh in the 2A RPI, but they’ve lost four in a row including a dismal 41-6 loss to now 1-5 South Sevier this past week.

Despite the fact San Juan will be heavily favored, Coach Christensen says his team is focused and determined to not look past any opponent this season.

You can rest assured they’ll once again be ready to take care of business when they disembark the San Juan School District bus Friday afternoon.

Game time is set for 7 p.m. and as always, you can catch all the action live on Redrock 92.7 FM and pictureitpalmer.com.