Lehi Sports
Lehi Pioneers shut out Desert Hills Thunder in St. George
The Lehi High School football team used stout defense and an effective-enough offense to blank the Thunder 35-0 in St. George on Friday (Aug. 23).
The margin could have been much worse as the Pioneers committed some costly mistakes in the contest and made two fruitless trips into the red zone, but they were comfortable enough to play much of the game with reserves and rolled to a big win.
After the initial drive ended with a missed field goal in very windy conditions, a big interception by senior linebacker Leonaitasi Esikia gave Lehi the ball back on the Desert Hills 19-yard line.
Junior running back Devaughn Eka shredded the Desert Hills defense almost every time he touched the ball and scored the first touchdown of the game with a run of seven yards with about three minutes left in the first quarter. He didn’t play in the second half.
Senior wide receiver Mays Madsen caught three successive touchdown passes from senior quarterback Jett Niu to effectively put the game out of reach for the homestanding Thunder.
The first was a quick 1-yard pass with just half a minute left in the initial period, giving the Pioneers a 14-0 advantage.
After Desert Hills was again held to three-and-out, Madsen broke a big return on the kickoff and a penalty pushed the ball to the Lehi 45-yard line. An Eka run moved the stick to midfield.
On the next play, Madsen got ahead of two defenders and caught a pass that went for a 50-yard score just 2:35 into the second quarter. He caught a 19-yarder for his third touchdown of the evening three minutes into the third period to make it 28-0.
Senior running back Wayde Watson took over the ground-gameduties in the second half and capped a big night for him with a 41-yard touchdown reception from junior quarterback Kannon Whiteley to tack on one more score at the 3:18 mark of the fourth quarter.
Senior kicker Gavin Fenn was 5-for-5 on PAT conversions to complete the tally for Lehi.
For more details on this game, check out the Aug. 29 issue of the Lehi Free Press.
