High school football: Beaver scores in all three phases in convincing win over rival Kanab in 1A state championship

Beaver continued its recent dominance over rival Kanab in emphatic fashion in Saturday’s 1A state championship game.
The top-seeded Beavers scored on offense, defense and special teams at Southern Utah University in a resounding 43-22 victory over the Cowboys.
“I’ve been here four times in my career, and this has been the best one by far. So much work has gone into the season and I’m just glad that we finally got it done,” said Beaver senior Deegan Blackner.
Much of the damage Saturday was done during a four-minute stretch spanning the second and third quarters in which Beaver broke open a tie game with three straight touchdowns in racing to the 36-14 lead.
Saturday’s showdown was the 99th in the history of the schools, with Beaver winning 17 of the past 18. The title was the 15th in school history for Beaver, which ranks third in state history.
“Every year it’s supposed to be somebody else’s year. Last year was supposed to be Enterprise’s year and this year it was supposed to be North Summit’s year and our kids just keep showing up and keep playing. Our program is proud. We’re proud of what we’ve done,” said Beaver coach Jon Marshall.
As they often are in big games, turnovers and special teams were massive for Beaver. Not only did the Beavers force two turnovers, but they also scored on a kick return that in many ways was the dagger on the way to another win over the Cowboys.
Marshall said seeing 43 points on the board next to his team’s name was particularly surprising.
“Our team is not known for that kind of stuff. We’re known as a grind it out team, and today we had some gigantic plays,” said Marshall.
Momentum was all over the place in the first half — as was the weather, as snow stopped and started several times.
Beaver started fast, scoring twice in the first quarter to take a 14-0 lead. Kanab responded with 14 quick points of its own in the second quarter on a fourth down pass and then a scoop and score, tying the game at 14-14.
Beaver regained the lead by halftime, scoring 15 points in the final four minutes, including a scoop and score of its own on a 66-yard fumble return from Maverick Albrecht.
Kanab was just outside the red zone hoping to go into the halftime locker room tied, but instead a strip sack allowed Beaver to go ahead 29-14 at the half.
The dagger came on the first play of the second half as Blackner returned the opening kickoff 91 yards, giving his team the 36-14 lead.
“It was a new kickoff return we put in a couple weeks ago. We’ve been saving it for this game, and we knew it was going to be open and it was there. Everybody blocked, just got down the sideline and put it into the end zone,” said Blackner.
Beaver needed all those big plays because it had a hard time moving the ball consistently against Kanab’s defense. The Cowboys outgained the Beavers 358-248 for the game.
After Blackner’s TD, Kanab responded and briefly made it a two-possession game on a flea-flicker 38-yard touchdown from Brogen Virostko to Kash Kabonic with 3:12 left in the third quarter.
The momentum last 12 seconds.
Beaver jumped back in front 43-22 when Gage Raddon caught a pass from Bodie Wheatley up the sideline and raced 54 yards into the end zone.
It was Wheatley’s second TD pass of the game.
Wheatley helped Beaver jump out fast with a 59-yard TD pass to Davin Orton to open the scoring, and then he put Beaver ahead 14-0 on a 2-yard TD run with 1:05 remaining in the first quarter.
Kanab responded in the second quarter with Virostko’s 15-yard TD pass to Troy Federkeil and then an 18-yard scoop-and-score from Cooper Anderson tying the game at 14-14 at the 7:17 mark of the second quarter.
Two possessions later, Beaver regained the lead at 22-14 on Blackner’s 11-yard TD run. Kanab responded well, driving the ball deep down field and was in prime position to try and level the score at half.
That changed as Kabonic was drilled in the backfield on a fourth down pass attempt, with Albrecht picking it up and racing 64 yards the other way.
“Kanab is a great running team and obviously our biggest thing was to no let them run the ball, and I thought we did a good job with that,” Marshall said. “We felt that if we could make them have to throw, then we could kind of open it up and get after them.”