Pleasant Grove » As turning points go, the final seconds in the second quarter of Pleasant Grove's 35-14 win over Jordan on Thursday night served as a prototype.

With 23 seconds remaining, the Beetdiggers, on the strength of a turnover, had a first and goal with the ball on the Vikings' 2-yard.

Instead of punching the ball in, however, Jordan quarterback Alex Hart was sacked on first down by Joe Kruger. They didn't convert on second or third down and botched a field-goal attempt.

So instead of trimming the deficit to 14-13, the Beetdiggers went into the locker room with nothing to show for a golden chance.

"That was the game right there," Pleasant Grove coach Dale Sampson said. "I thought they would've been able to put tremendous pressure on us with a touchdown right there. The fact that we held them there gave us some breathing room heading into halftime."

Given a chance, the Vikings, the second ranked team in the Tribune's power poll, turned the game into a rout. Pleasant Grove scored 21 consecutive points in the second half before pulling its first team and easing up towards the end of the game.

They accomplished this with senior scat back Jeff Harris contributing two touchdowns, one rushing, one receiving, and returning the second half kickoff 71 yards to set up another touchdown. Dallas Lloyd, the senior quarterback and a Stanford commit, turned in his usual solid performance

Advertisement
with two more touchdowns.

"I thought Dallas was very good tonight," Sampson said. "He really came on and controlled the game. That was a big key, him being able to control the offense."

The biggest key was on the defensive end. After surrendering an early touchdown to the Beetdiggers, Pleasant Grove shut down Jordan's explosive offense. Sure standout quarterback Alex Hart put up good numbers, but Jordan never could find its niche and that's because of Kruger, who notched three sacks and the rest of the defensive front, which put Hart under pressure all night.

"I thought the defense was outstanding," Sampson said. "We're really trying to play well on defense, and I thought we did so tonight. That was hugely important right there."

tjones@sltrib.com

Highlights

Dallas Lloyd runs for two touchdowns.

» Joe Kruger notches three sacks.

» Pleasant Grove remains on top of Region 4.