This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
While many prep fans are looking forward to next week's matchup between 5A powers Bingham and Brighton, there are two huge games Friday featuring ranked teams in Class 3A and 2A.
In Class 3A, top-ranked and defending champion Judge hosts unbeaten and third-ranked Union in the Bulldogs' homecoming.
Judge is the favorite, largely because the Bulldogs are at home and have dominated Union in the past. But the Cougars are off to their best start since 1988 and could be a surprise this year.
In Class 2A, charter school Summit Academy hosts defending champion South Summit at its Bluffdale campus in a game Bears coach Scott Gorringe calls the biggest game of his school's three years of playing high school football.
South Summit is is ranked first in 2A, while Summit Academy moved up to second last week after an upset win over North Summit
"This is a big game for us to see whether we are for real or pretenders," said Gorringe, whose team was 2-9 last year and lost badly to South Summit.
The Bears' coach said the biggest difference in his squad this year is maturity. Quarterback Hagan Hines is a dual threat. Last week against North Summit, he rushed and passed for over 100 yards. Hines is getting plenty of help from Steven Harp, who was moved to tailback this year.
"Last year, nine of 11 kids were juniors and we never learned how to win," said Gorringe. "We didn't know how to finish. With the exception of South Summit, we were in most of the games we played. We competed well. But we could not win the game. The biggest difference this year is that when bad things happen, we don't drop our heads and mope around. We know we can finish a game and come out on top."
In another interesting Class 3A game, unbeaten Richfield travels to Canyon View. Wildcat coach Erik Thorson could be the first new Richfield coach to win his first five games since Joe Buys, who started 6-0 in 1931. Richfield moved into the 3A rankings for the first time at No. 5 last week.
The top 5A game sends a strong Herriman team to unbeaten Jordan. Two good 4A games are on the schedule with struggling East traveling to arch-rival Highland and unbeaten Roy trying to break a 14-game losing streak to Logan in a home game.
Football schedule
Thursday
• Sky View 52, Provo 13
Friday
All games at 7 p.m. except where noted
• Alta at Taylorsville
• Bear River at Juan Diego
• Beaver at Grand
• Box Elder at Ogden
• Carbon at Grantsville
• Cottonwood at West Jordan
• Cyprus at Kearns
• Desert Hills at Payson
• East at Highland
• Emery at Morgan
• Fremont at Davis
• Granger at Bingham
• Gunnison at ALA
• Herriman at Jordan
• Hillcrest at Timpanogos
• Hunter at Brighton
• Hurricane at Cedar
• Juab at Delta
• Layton at Bountiful
• Lehi at Pleasant Grove
• Logan at Roy
• Maple Mountain at Spanish Fork
• Mountain Crest at Bonneville
• Mountain View at Orem
• Murray at Skyline
• North Sanpete at Manti
• North Sevier at Layton Christian, 4 p.m.
• North Summit at Millard
• Olympus at Corner Canyon
• Parowan at San Juan
• Pine View at Dixie
• Rich at Milford
• Richfield at Canyon View
• Riverton at Lone Peak
• Salem Hills at Wasatch
• South Sevier at Enterprise
• South Summit at Summit Academy
• Springville at Timpview
• Stansbury at Ben Lomond
• Syracuse at Northridge
• Tooele at Park City
• Uintah at Copper Hills
• Union at Judge
• Weber at Viewmont
• Westlake at American Fork
• Whitehorse at Kanab
• Woods Cross at Clearfield