High school football: Corner Canyon flips switch to best Lone Peak in 6A quarterfinals

Corner Canyon quarterback Isaac Wilson is familiar with carving up defensive secondaries with his arm, but his legs kept the Chargers’ offense churning Friday to survive a 6A quarterfinals test and top Lone Peak, 35-21.

With the game tied 14-14 after halftime, Wilson rolled for an 11-yard touchdown, the Chargers defense nabbed an interception and big offensive lineman Zion Finau scored on a short dive in three consecutive possessions to carve out some breathing room on the way to securing a 6A semifinals spot.

“It’s nice being able to run around and everyone vacates because everyone hates guarding our Air Raid,” Wilson said. “It helps out.”

Corner Canyon opened the scoring with a trademark efficient drive, including converting two fourth down attempts. Wilson capped it off with a 21-yard scoring strike to wide receiver Drew Whatcott.

Lone Peak went to work with the tandem of tough running from Brooks Wilde and a few tough Jackson Blake throws, methodically marching on a 15-play drive to drain clock and keep the ball out of Wilson’s hands.

Blake rolled out and found tight end Mason Thorpe for a 6-yard touchdown pass in a sea of Corner Canyon hands to knot the game up 7-7 with 2:54 left in the first quarter.

The Knights defense forced Wilson to drop his eyes and run through a combination of pass rush and tight coverage of the Chargers’ deep routes. Corner Canyon coach Eric Kjar said he’s always tried to have a quarterback who can make plays with his legs and attributed leaning on Wilson’s option run ability to negate the Knights’ rush.

“We knew it was going to be tough and I think our kids know that, too. (The Knights) play good football, they’re good defensively and they have a good secondary,” Kjar said. “We were concerned about them. It’s a talented team and they have some kids that can play.”

After a turnover on downs, a hurried Blake tossed up an interception to defensive back Brock White. Four plays later, Wilson punished the mistake with a 27-yard delayed screen touchdown toss to running back Bryton Brady for a 14-7 Corner Canyon lead.

Lone Peak made a change at quarterback after the Blake turnover to Luke Christensen, who converted two fourth down tries en route to an 8-yard incredible scoring catch from wide receiver Jasean Mayberry. Mayberry went up strong and tiptoed the back of the end zone to tie it back up 14-14 at half.

Defensively, the Chargers tightened up as the third quarter dawned, and a forced punt led to Wilson’s 11-yard scoring scamper to make it 21-14.

“Our d-line got going, put some pressure on those guys and made the quarterback move around a little bit,” Kjar said. “That was huge.”

Immediately after that drive, Crew Staley nabbed a Christensen desperation heave on third and long.

“I saw him coming in my zone, the ball went up and I just picked it out of the air,” Staley said. “With the game tied 14-14, we needed to get back and we had a good play to get it going.”

The Chargers chewed up the gifted short field and Finau barreled in from a yard out to make it 28-14 with 4:28 left in the third quarter.

Both offenses stalled repeatedly until Christensen responded with a perfectly lofted 13-yard pass to Trey Robinson to reduce the deficit to 28-21 with 7:03 left in the game.

Wilson, however, took the air out of the ball and milked nearly five minutes off the clock with a host of keepers before Brady followed a lead block up the middle for the decisive 9-yard score and the 35-21 lead with 2:01 remaining.

Next up for Corner Canyon is a trip to Rice-Eccles Stadium, an occurrence as familiar as snow in a Utah winter forecast.

“It’s really surreal,” Wilson said. “We’re not done yet. We aren’t. We’ve got to keep competing and keep coming out faster with more energy and more efficiently.”