Lehi Sports
Pioneers prevail over Bingham in flagfest
The Lehi High School football team overcame a sloppy first half by building a big lead and then gave up a couple of late scores in reserve time to top the Miners 34-23 at home on Friday (Aug. 30).
The contest featured a lot of yellow laundry, and a Bingham player was ejected early in the first quarter. In addition, Lehi threw two interceptions around the goal line and Pioneer senior linebacker Leonaitasi Esikia made an interception at the Lehi 22-yard line to end a Miner drive, so the first period ended scoreless.
At the start of the second quarter, Bingham punted on a fourth-and-4 and senior Mays Madsen broke a big return to set Lehi up at the Miner 27-yard line.
The drive stalled with stiff defense and a penalty, so the Pioneers settled for a 51-yard field goal by senior kicker Gavin Fenn to get on the board at the 10:19 mark.
Bingham responded with a drive that included a first down on a fake punt and a lot of penalties, but eventually the Miners connected on a 40-yard pass to take the lead 7-3 with 5:04 left in the half.
That appeared to get Lehi’s attention. The Pioneers settled in on both sides of the ball and posted 31 unanswered points to build an insurmountable lead by early in the final period.
To begin with, they scored twice in the final three minutes of the half.
After a 19-yard pickup on a pass from senior quarterback Jett Niu to senior wide receiver Griffin Faamausili brought the ball to midfield, Niu connected with Madsen on the right sidelineand he broke free after a big block by junior wide receiver Carter Cutler and raced to the endzone with 2:28 left.
Fenn converted on the PAT and later kicked a 49-yard field goal with four seconds remaining to send Lehi to the locker room with a 13-7 advantage.
The third quarter was mostly a penalty-plagued stalemate until junior defensive back Murphy Madsen picked off a Bingham pass on the Pioneer 13-yard line.
On the next play, Niu was scrambling close to his own goal line when he lofted a long throw to Cutler streaking down the right sideline and he took it all the way for an 87-yard touchdown to make it 20-7 at the 1:34 mark.
Early in the fourth, Lehi was facing a first-and-20 after yet another penalty when they elected to run a reverse. Mays Madsen ended up with the ball and made some great moves to evade tacklers on the way to paydirt, pushing the Pioneers ahead 27-7 with 11:17 to play.
On the subsequent Miner possession, Bingham turned the ball over on downs at their own 28. On the next play, Niu tossed to senior Abe Jager for the touchdown, adding that score to his superlative defensive performance in the contest.
Now up 34-7 with 10:14 to play, Lehi began substituting freely. The Miners scored twice inside the final five minutes to complete the tally for the night.
For more details and photos from this contest, check out the Sept. 5 issue of the Lehi Free Press.
The Pioneers have an open date next week because of a late notification of a drop by their scheduled opponent. Larson tried to find a game in five states without success. Lehi will next visit Herriman on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
