(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Beaver's quarterback Porter Hollingshead celebrates his touchdown. Beaver High School boys' football team leads Delta High School 35-16 during their class 2A state semifinal football game Saturday, November 4, 2017 at Weber State University's Stewart Stadium.
Ogden • Beaver High School’s Rhett Jordan lowered his shoulder and barreled into Delta quarterback Jake Day, knocking him to the ground.
Jordan jumped up to a roar of applause from the Beavers fans. The sack pushed the Rabbits back seven yards and Delta, which trailed Beaver by just a touchdown, had no choice but to attempt the field goal.
“If they go down and score and tie the game at 14-14, they’ve got all the momentum,” Beavers coach Jon Marshall said. “We felt great about holding them to that field goal, and then again the ability of our offense to march down, and with a touchdown, get it back to 21-10, that kind of turned the tide of the game.”
Beaver went onto beat Delta 35-16 in the Class 2A state semifinals Saturday at Weber State’s Stewart Stadium. The Beavers, the two-time defending state champions, will face South Summit for the third year in a row. South Summit beat Beaver 23-7 in Kamas earlier this season.
Jordan’s sack set up a 28-yard field goal by Rabbits kicker Sam Clark with 3:34 left in the the third quarter to cut the Rabbits deficit to 14-10.
“When he got that sack, I just knew that those are the kinds of things that we need to do,” Beaver quarterback Porter Hollingshead said. “And if we keep executing, we can win the championship with [plays like] that.”
The Beavers scored on their next drive. Tyce Raddon, who led the team with three touchdowns, punched it in with a 1-yard carry to give the Beavers an 11-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.
That’s when Hollingshead, who started at cornerback last season, really started showing off his skills on both sides of the ball. His interception at the end of the third quarter set up Beaver’s first scoring drive of the final quarter.
“In practice, our coaches told us that they were going to do that little out route,” Hollingshead said, “so when I saw it, I knew I could jump it.”
He then led his offense down the field, connecting with Jordan for a 6-yard touchdown pass.
BEAVER 35, DELTA 16 <br>• Beaver and South Summit will play in the state championship game for the third year in a row. The Beavers have won the last two. <br>• Beaver’s Porter Hollingshead grabs two interceptions, including one pick-6. <br>• Delta scores just 16 points despite 316 yards of total offense.
Hollingshead grabbed another interception with 7:36 left on the clock. This time he returned it 63 yards for a touchdown and a 35-10 lead.
“That was a gigantic play for us,” Marshall said. “That kind of put the dagger in and helped us to pull away.”
Delta responded with a touchdown on a 31-yard pass from Day to Dallin Draper, but any hope of a comeback faded away for Delta once the Beavers recovered the Rabbits’ onside kick.
Raddon (132 yards on 22 carries) and Hollinshead (115 yards on 21 carries) led the Beavers’ run-heavy offense.
“We didn’t throw the ball that much today, but we did have a couple of big completions to Rhett Jordan that kind of opened up our offense a little bit,” Marshall said. “So that was big, and next week we’re going to have to have that because South Summit’s not just going to let us run them over. We’re going to have to be very good and very balanced if we want to have a chance to beat those guys.”