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Cedar City • The Beaver Beavers had one minor hiccup Saturday afternoon as they faced South Summit in the 2A state championship game at Eccles Coliseum — in the space of two minutes, a three-touchdown lead evaporated into a tie game at halftime.

But in the second half, Dillon Smith and Jordan Hardy restored order and gave the Beavers another trophy.

Smith ran for five touchdowns and Hardy added three more, including a 96-yard clinching run in the fourth quarter, as the Beavers sealed a 55-35 victory over the South Summit Wildcats and won the 2A title for the second year in a row.

"We knew this would be the last two quarters for the seniors," said Smith, whose longest scoring run was 14 yards in the first quarter. "Coach said it was zero-zero and we gotta go play."

The Beavers (11-1) shook off the surge from the Wildcats and scored on their opening drive of the third quarter to break the tie. Smith found the end zone on a 1-yard run, and the momentum only snowballed from there.

Smith added a 5-yard touchdown run later in the period to push the Beaver lead to 42-28, and even after South Summit (10-2) responded with a 3-yard scoring pass from Nick Beasley to Brandon Dansie, the Wildcats had no answer over the final 12 minutes.

"Beaver High School is the king right now," said first-year coach Randy Hunter. "Our goal today was to physically beat South Summit and show them last year wasn't a fluke. I think we more than did that today."

The well-defined moments that helped the Beavers assert themselves came in the fourth quarter. With the score at 42-35 and the Wildcats at their own 14, Hardy intercepted a fourth-down pass from Beasley at the South Summit 23. Although the offense couldn't get a first down, the defense was just getting warmed up.

Three plays later, McCoy Bergstrom intercepted Beasley and returned it 26 yards to the 1-yard line. Smith wasted no time in finding the end zone and restored a two-touchdown edge with 4 minutes, 16 seconds left.

And even when two penalties from the Beavers tried to help the Wildcats keep hope alive, Porter Hollingshead intercepted another Beasley pass at the 4-yard line to end the drama and secure the trophy.

On the very next play, Hardy proceeded to electrify the blue-clad crowd with his long touchdown run that put the exclamation point on the championship repeat.

"This is one of the greatest feelings ever. It's everything I've ever worked for," said Hardy, who ran for over 300 yards. "I had to work for every rush and I got beat up every play." —

Beaver 55, South Summit 35

R Beaver senior Dillon Smith runs for five touchdowns as the Beavers beat South Summit to repeat as 2A state champs.

• South Summit erases a 28-7 deficit by scoring three times in the last two minutes of the first half.

• The Beavers become the fifth straight 2A school to win back-to-back state titles, joining North Summit, San Juan, Manti and South Summit.