South Jordan » Christmas came early for Kamron Coon.

The Bingham High senior recovered a block punt in the end zone on the final play of the first half, and the Miners used that spark to gouge visiting Syracuse 38-3 in the quarterfinals of the 5A state playoffs on Friday.

With the Titans seemingly content to run out the clock tied 3-3, the Miners countered with timeouts. That proved beneficial, as Jake Bright blocked Josh Kealamakia's punt and Coon snatched it in midair to the surprise of everyone.

"It was an adrenaline rush just to catch the ball in the end zone," Coon said. "It was a big momentum change. We came out and kept playing hard after that. We go into every second half and say it's 0-0. We had to play another game."

Bingham parlayed that momentum into the third quarter, outscoring Syracuse 28-0 and outgaining the Titans 169-35. Stefan Cantwell had two touchdown runs, Harvey Langi added another, and Travis McRae returned an interception for a score.

"[The blocked punt] was a huge momentum shift, but what was even bigger was backing it up," Miners coach Dave Peck said. "We had to have a three-and-out if we wanted to keep that momentum. We stopped them and then scored again."

Bingham advances to face Alta in the 5A semifinals Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium. It will be the fifth consecutive year the longtime rivals have met in postseason,

Advertisement
with Alta defeating Bingham for the state title last year.

"We're to a point now where we expect to play for the state championship," Peck said. "Our goal is definitely to go win this thing. To beat Alta, we'll probably have to play our best game to this point. We welcome the challenge and look forward to playing them."

Langi rushed for 151 yards on 20 carries, while Cantwell and Richie Vakapuna combined for 128 yards on the ground. Ty Hannay threw for 77 yards on seven completions.