5A football: Miners win rivalry

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Bingham's Brady Measom stretches for a pass during the 5A semifinal football game between Bingham and Alta at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City Friday.

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The teams lined up to shake hands after the game was over and when the childhood friends faced each other, a few words were exchanged.

The sentiment between the Bingham and Alta players can be summed up by the relationship between Alta quarterback Jordan Brown and Bingham defensive back Braden Anderson. On the field, they want to destroy each other. Off the field, they have the utmost respect for each other.

That would explain why even when Bingham beat Alta 28-19 in the Class 5A semifinals at Rice Eccles Stadium on Friday, Brown made Anderson make him a promise -- that Bingham would take the state championship next week.

"He told me, 'Go win it all for us,'" Anderson said. "On the field he wants to pick me

That respect has grown from a very heated rivalry, one that drew around 15,000 fans to the University of Utah Friday. Alta and Bingham have dominated the 5A landscape; the last three state champions have been one or the other.

Heading into Friday's semifinal, the last five meetings between the two programs had been won by an average 3.5 points. Alta has won the last two state titles but this year has belonged to Bingham. On Friday, Bingham took control early. The Miners took a risk and tweaked their defense. They held back on blitzing, sat back a little and relied on the defensive line to put pressure on Alta's quarterback

"The first meeting, they had big plays over the top and we couldn't give up those big plays," Bingham coach Dave Peck said. "We relied on the kids up front. Sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone to beat a team like Alta."

The Hawks were definitely moving the ball -- Brown was completed 4 of 5 passes for 108 yards in the first quarter -- but they also failed to score twice when they were in the red zone four times.

Alta converted just 4 of 14 third downs and, uncharacteristically, Vance Bingham missed two field goals that were well within his range.

Meanwhile Bingham took risks on offense, too. On a fourth and three situation at the beginning of the second quarter, the Miners faked a punt and Bridger Peck broke loose for a 33-yard run. That eventually led to a an 11-yard touchdown pass from Stephan Cantwell to Ryker Hall.

Braeden Loveless converted on a 38-yard field goal and Ty Hannay completed a 30-yard pass to Harvey Langi to take a 15-7 lead into halftime.

"That's the biggest, best Bingham team we've played since I've been here," Alta coach Les Hamilton said. "The things didn't go our way was because of them."

Though the score was reasonably close, there wasn't the usual suspense of an Alta-Bingham game. Bingham held a 22-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter and was never seriously challenged down the stretch.

A 34-yard pass from Brown to Zach Liston seemed to give the Hawks' offense a surge in the fourth quarter. That was the beginning of a seven-play, 47-yard drive to cut the score to 22-13.

On the ensuing drive, Bingham put the game out of reach as Harvey Langi, who led Bingham with 78 rushing yards, scored on a 34-yard run. At that point, all of Alta's missed chances hurt all the more.

The Hawks managed to find the end zone with 16 seconds left in the game, but it was far too late to stop Bingham.

"We were prepared and you play so much better when you're prepared. You know what's going to happen," said Bingham quarterback Ty Hannay. "We just wanted to smash them in the mouth from the beginning and we had that confidence."

mthach@sltrib.com