This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

It wasn't clean, it wasn't pretty and it wasn't fluid, but one word that can describe Duchesne's 35-20 win over Layton Christian Academy on Friday is "tough."

"We knew it was going to be a tough game," Duchesne coach Jerry Cowan said. "We told the kids that things aren't going to be easy, especially coming on the road and playing a well-coached team that's full of talent. [LCA] made a lot of plays, we just made a few more than they did."

The Eagles didn't make things any easier for themselves in the first half, giving up two interceptions on offense and several deep passing plays on defense. Before the first half was over, LCA had completed passes for 20, 38 and 86 yards to give them a 14-7 lead midway through the second quarter.

Fortunately for Duchesne, their prolific running game was able alleviate some of the miscues made on both sides of the ball. Thanks to a 60-yard run from junior tailback Weston Poulson on a third-down-and-forever, senior Steven Skewes was able to punch in a two-yard touchdown run two plays later to tie the game at 14-14 heading into the halftime break.

The start of the second half brought more woes to the Duchesne sideline as they turned the ball over again, this time a fumble, and proceeded to give up another long touchdown pass of 57 yards.

"Some of those were totally my fault," senior defensive back Chad Lewis said about giving up the long pass plays. "I was not where I was supposed to be. But my teammates had my back, they told me to just keep going and go after the next one. I just had to stay on my guy and keep my coverage."

It wasn't long after that point that Lewis and some of the other Duchesne defensive backs started making some plays on the ball. Lewis picked off LCA quarterback Braxton Llewelyn for the first time with 1:46 remaining in the third quarter to preserve his team's slim 21-20 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

After seeing the defense start to make some plays, the offense followed suit by finally completing some passes to their own players. Senior quarterback Jarrett Spencer had a forgettable passing day, completing six of his 12 passes for 63 yards and three interceptions, but his play late in the second half was enough to force the LCA defense into respecting the pass enough so that the running game could continue to thrive.

"We got some better calls later in the game and we started to realize that the tight end was open," Spencer said. "The line was blocking good the whole time so I had plenty of time to throw, it was just a matter of getting the pass there and not missing it. You can't let the mistakes drag you down, we just kept doing our jobs and it worked out."

Spencer and the rest of the Duchesne passing game gave Poulson enough space to work with as he rumbled 16-yards for his second touchdown of the night to give his team a 28-20 lead with 3:04 left in the game. A short time later, Lewis snagged his second interception of the game and returned it 27 yards to the end zone to put the game away for the Eagles.

Poulson, who finished with 179 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries, said that starting region play with a road victory against LCA was just what the team needed to prove that they are still a power to be reckoned with in 1A.

"They're a good team," Poulson said of LCA. "We were able to take the momentum at times and we had some good team play in the second half … it was easy after that and we pulled it out in the end." —

Storylines

• Duchesne rushes for 294 yards and three touchdowns in Friday's 35-20 win over Layton Christian Academy.

• Layton Christian Academy passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns in Friday's loss.

• Duchesne extends its winning streak over LCA to eight straight games from 2009-2016.