Broncos pick up right where they left off, demolish Judge Memorial

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
Theoretically winning a third straight Utah State football championship is going to get more challenging at some point for the San Juan Broncos. That point was not this past Friday.
They destroyed the Judge Memorial Bulldogs for the second time this season, this time in the 2A quarterfinals on their home field 68-0.
The Broncos scored 27 points in the first quarter and 27 more in the second in a game that was never in question. It was the team’s state-leading 35th win in a row.
After nearly three weeks without an appearance on a game field before their first postseason game some thought the two-time defending champs might have some rust to knock off, but that was not the case.
The time off just gave the Broncos a chance to rest, heal up, and become more scary for opponents. They picked up right where they left off this past Friday.
Senior quarterback Parker Snyder completed 15 of his 19 pass attempts for 233 yards and five touchdowns. That’s become so ho-hum to say this season, but it’s really pretty impressive.
Zack Conway carried the ball 12 times for 152 yards and two more touchdowns. Snyder scored a touchdown on the ground and so did backup-to-the-backup quarterback Jagger Nieves late in the game.
Threes were wild among the receivers. Keaton Ivins led in the win with three catches for 67 yards. Jake Ivins had 54 yards on three catches and two touchdowns.
Brigham Nielson also had three catches for 30 yards and a TD. And Conway caught three Snyder passes out of the backfield for 37 yards.
Trace Bennett opened the scoring with a 33-yard TD catch early on and finished the game with two catches for 44 yards. And it was nice to see Anthony Done back on the field after missing five games with an injury. He had one catch – a one-yard touchdown – in the win.
Bennett had an impressive 12 tackles against Judge; Jordan Duke had eight; Tripp Palmer, JD Palmer, and Done got six apiece, Jake Ivins had five; and Taylor Black made three stops.
The Broncos, who came into the game averaging three takeaways a game, forced five Bulldog turnovers. Josiah LaPalmer and Jordan Duke both had an interception. Jaiten Knight, Brigham Nielson, and JD Palmer all recovered one fumble each.
With the win San Juan advances to the 2A Utah State semifinals for the third year in a row and will take on #5 Summit Academy this Saturday, November 4.
The Bears beat Emery in an overtime thriller this past Friday 45-44 to advance to the semifinals. It will be a rematch of the September 21 game between San Juan and Summit Academy which the Broncos won 47-22.
The kickoff is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday at Zions Bank Stadium on the RSL Academy campus in Herriman. Art Adair and I will be there for the duration of the Broncos’ state title bid on Redrock 92 Radio.
The game will be broadcast live on the radio starting with the pregame at 9:30 Saturday morning, but Stream Utah no longer has the rights for video streaming.
It is possible to listen to the live local broadcast while watching the state-sponsored video stream. Simply open the audio stream on redrock92.com and pause it until it matches the video.