San Juan football team closes season with eight straight wins, enters state tournament as top seed

The San Juan High School football team earned one last lopsided victory on Thursday, October 15 to close out the regular season, but it wasn’t without a fight. The Broncos beat South Sevier 60-28 in a battle that decided the 2A South Region Championship in Blanding.

In most of their games this season San Juan overcame slow starts to ultimately go on to win big over opponents who were scratching their heads by the fourth quarter. This past Thursday’s contest was no exception.

The Broncos received the opening kick and drove the ball into Ram territory, but the drive stalled on the 45 when an errant pitch to Brigg Palmer allowed him to be tackled in the backfield, resulting in a turnover on downs.

South Sevier was unable to take advantage of the defensive stop as the San Juan defense bowed up and forced a swift three-and-out. With a blustery Blanding wind at his back, Rams punter (and quarterback) Rayce Freeman booted the ball all the way down to the San Juan five.

From there the Bronco offense got in gear. A couple of solid plays pushed the ball to the 23 and gave San Juan a first down. Then quarterback Beau Yeomans hit Randall Black on an out route at the 49.

Black juked a South Sevier pursuer, giving him time to get to the sideline where he ran the remaining 51 yards to the end zone for the first touchdown of the night. The 77-yard reception was his tenth receiving touchdown of the season and one of two in the game.

San Juan continued to build momentum with another defensive stop, forcing the Rams to punt for the second straight time. Then the offense took over again as Yeomans hit Kooper Laws with a 45-yard pass to set the Broncos up with a first-and-goal at the five yard line.

On the next play Brigg Palmer took a handoff and bounced to the outside, but was pulled down by a South Sevier tackler, twisting his knee awkwardly as he came down. Unfortunately for San Juan the injury would force Palmer out of the game for the remainder of the night.

The Broncos didn’t let the setback keep them down as they wasted no time getting on the board again. From the seven Yeomans shuttled an inside pass to Randall Black who scampered into the end zone for his second touchdown catch of the game, increasing the lead to 14-0 with 3:39 left in the first quarter.

The Rams got their first big play of the game on their next possession, but it was called back on a holding penalty, effectively ending their drive. Randall Black received the ensuing punt at his own 33 and proceeded to weave his way through the South Sevier punt team all the way to the Ram 18.

San Juan scored their third touchdown of the opening quarter with 44.7 seconds left when Jayce Raisor finally registered his first touchdown of the season. He took a handoff from Yeomans at the seven yard line and scampered in untouched.

The Broncos led South Sevier 20-0 after one quarter and looked to be on cruise control. But the Rams scored 11 seconds into the second quarter on a big 75-yard touchdown run from senior Trapper Farnsworth to make it interesting at 20-7.

That was as close as they would get however, as the San Juan offense answered immediately. Yeomans hit Andrew Nielson with a 70-yard touchdown pass just 16 seconds after the South Sevier touchdown, making the score 26-7.

The Broncos continued to pour it on, scoring two more times over the course of the next nine minutes to increase their lead to 40-7 with 2:41 left in the half. Amazingly, four more touchdowns were scored in those two minutes, 41 seconds.

Just 50 second later Trapper Farnsworth scored again on another big play, streaking right up the middle for a 72-yard run. Not to be outdone, San Juan’s Miken Keith scooped the ensuing South Sevier kick off the turf and broke five tackles on his way to a 78-yard return for a touchdown.

Staley Dandy intercepted intercepted a Rayce Freeman on the Rams’ ensuing drive and then Yeomans threw a beautiful pass from the 25 into the back of the end zone to an open Miken Keith. Keith made no mistake, catching his second touchdown of the night with 22 seconds left in the half.

Stunningly the Rams scored the final touchdown of the half when Cooper Castle ran the San Juan kickoff 93 yards to the house. When the dust settled the teams had combined to score eight touchdowns in the second quarter for 54 points and the Broncos led South Sevier 53-21.

Though the clock wasn’t running to start the second half San Juan changed that on their first possession of the third quarter. They had to wait a few minutes though, as the Rams methodically drove the ball to midfield.

They ultimately punted though, and it was the Broncos’ turn to put on a methodical drive. They took the remaining majority of the quarter to steadily push the ball downfield. With a first-and-goal on the Ram five Yeomans hit Kooper Laws with a shuttle pass and Laws ran it into the end zone untouched.

The 60-21 lead insured that the clock would run steadily for the remainder of the game. South Sevier added one final touchdown against the backup San Juan defense with 9:57 to go, making the final score 60-28.

Beau Yeomans was nearly unstoppable for the second straight game. He completed 20 of his 26 pass attempts for 335 yards and six touchdowns. Randall Black was his main target with four catches for 132 yards and two touchdowns.

Andrew Nielson was solid, catching two passes for 75 yards and a TD. Kooper Laws also had a great night with four catches for 60 yards and a touchdown. Miken Keith made lots of noise with five catches for 53 yards and two TDs.

Jayce Raisor and Thomas Hardin combined for 171 yards on 18 carries in relief of the injured Brigg Palmer. Both players scored one touchdown each. Raisor had ten carries for 99 yards and Hardin had eight for 72.

Those two also led the Broncos’ defensive effort with Hardin collecting 11 tackles on the night and Raisor earning seven. Gaige Palmer had six stops for San Juan and Kooper Laws had five.

Hardin registered the only sack in the game. Staley Dandy and Andrew Nielson both intercepted one Freeman pass apiece.

After losing the opening game of the season to Grantsville back on August 14 the Broncos very impressively won eight in a row to close out the regular season with an 8-1 record. With the win over South Sevier they are the undefeated 2A South Region Champions for the sixth straight season.

San Juan ended the season ranked first in the 2A ranks and will enjoy a bye in the first round of the 2A Utah Football State Tournament which begins this weekend.

They will host either #8 Emery or #9 Judge Memorial in the quarterfinals on Friday, October 30. Stay tuned to Redrock 92 and SJRNews.com for an official game time when it’s decided.