There was a ton of room to run to his left and just one Skyridge defender. The first down looked guaranteed. And the hope for more seemed reasonable.
But there was no acceleration, and Corner Canyon quarterback Zach Wilson’s juke fooled no one. He was taken down well short of the first down.
“Running to my left, I can’t cut back at all,” he said. “My top speed has been bad. I’m out of shape. I haven’t run in like four weeks. When you take time off like that, it really starts to effect you compared to the beginning of the year.”
Wilson, the Chargers dual-threat, has been limited since injuring his ankle against Brighton. Skyridge limited Wilson to 35 yards rushing on 23 carries, and his longest run was a 13-yard dive into the end zone in the Falcons’ 34-33 win in Thursday’s Class 5A state semifinal.
“You can barely walk before the game, but it’s one of those things you just kind of got to deal with it,” Wilson said. “I was supposed to be done the rest of the season, but I had to come out and help my team. You just gotta put your injuries to the side, especially if they aren’t going to be life-threatening.”
Wilson has been a solid Boise State commit, but he recently shared on social media that he received offers from Minnesota of the Big Ten and Syracuse of the ACC. Wilson reiterated his decision.
“It’s nice to get other attention,” he said. “It’s kind of like a little pat on the back of how your season is going, getting some big-time offers. I am 100 percent committed to Boise State. I will be there in January.”
While Wilson was limited in his running, he did throw for 341 yards and two scores. Despite those numbers, he was frustrated with Thursday’s passing attack.
“We had a lot of open guys down the field,” he said. “The problem is we didn’t have a lot of time. I was trying to do the best I could — get more depth on my drop, try and keep plays alive. … We had guys open but pressure killed us a little bit.”
Wilson did manage to lead the Chargers to the Falcons’ 33-yard line for a potential game-winning field goal with 2 seconds left, but Corner Canyon snapped the ball before kicker Conner Ebeling was set.
“We just got off on the cadence,” Wilson said. “I guess Conner wasn’t ready. But I have 100 percent belief in him to make the field goal. I would have loved to have seen him try it. But too bad it ended short like that.”
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