The 4-A Sky View Bobcats knew they had their hands full Friday night when they traveled to Sandy, Utah to take on the 5-A Jordan High Beetdiggers. In the second quarter the Bobcats showed some signs of life putting up three scores, but their pulses faded as the high powered Jordan offense handed them a 63-21 defeat.

A Bobcat defense that has at times been one of the few bright spots this year in losses to top ten 5-A schools, could not stop one of the premier quarter backs in Utah high school football. McCoy Hill lit up the Bobcats passing for six of the Beetdiggers nine touchdowns, and punched in another one on the ground. The Beetdiggers rolled over the Bobcats, racking up 637 yards of offense, leaving the Sky View defensive unit scratching their heads, ready to study film, and make some serious adjustments.

In the second quarter senior quarterback, Gabe Anderson was dialed in to his receivers finding the end zone three times, twice to senior tight end, Don Corbelll and another to junior wide receiver, Corey Jensen. The second quarter scoring binge put points on the board in three consecutive possessions accounting for all 21 of the Bobcats points.

Head coach, Craig Ander had praise for a tough Jordan team saying, “We got them in multiple third and long situations, and they were able to execute better in those situations than we were, and I think that made a huge difference in the game obviously.” Anhder continued, “They had some incredible receivers, and a great quarterback. That’s a Division 1 quarterback, and one of the best quarterbacks we’ve ever played against.”

One of the positives that Sky View had in the game was in special teams play. Special teams, an area that had been an Achilles heel for the Bobcats in previous weeks, responded well to the work they had done coming into this game. They gave the Bobcats some good field position to start on offense, and many times pushed the Beetdiggers back across midfield for the defense. Most notably was the return game that saw junior, Yabitse Wells getting the bulk of the work including a 45 yard return that he took on the goal line. Wells pounded out 153 yards on kick returns. Another positive on special teams was the kicking of senior, Jordan Nielsen, who punted the ball four times for an average of 34.25 yards per attempt. Nielsen also came up big on a fourth down play when he kept the ball on a fake punt and punished the Jordan return team for a first down. Nielsen said,“We worked on it a whole bunch this week to be able to execute well on special teams. On the fourth down play I was about to punt it but the blocking was good and it was open on that side so I went for it.” Anhder praised his special teams kids for winning the field position battle, and for stepping up to the challenge and beginning to fix that portion of their game.

Sky View has faced one of their toughest pre-season schedules in Anhder’s tenure. He feels like even though they have come away from these games with three defeats that there are some great things they can take from them. For Anhder the pre-season schedule has given the Bobcats an opportunity to see some very athletic and well coached teams that did not show many weaknesses. This has given the Bobcats some very different looks that they can learn from and build on. “We scheduled this schedule on purpose, it wasn’t an accident. It’s something that we have wanted to do to take our program to another level.” Ander said, “We scheduled them believing that we could come out and win these games, that wasn’t the case this year. Because of who we’ve played we have been able to test ourselves at a lot of levels that you can’t test yourself at when you schedule softer teams. We know where we are strong, and we know areas very clearly that we need to work on. Because of that we’ve got specific objectives now that we can go after to improve our team and raise our level to ultimately be our best in region and hopefully the state playoffs.” Anhder feels how the team responds to these previous challenges will make all the difference in the world and will ultimately define the character and future of this year’s football team.

Heading into Homecoming Week, Anhder expects that his team will enjoy the parades and other events of the week when they are taking place. Come game time he is confident the team will shake off the losses, learn from the mistakes, and focus on the task at hand. The task before the Bobcats will be to tame the 1-2 Tigers from Orem High School as they face their first 4-A opponent of the season. Anhder, not having seen any film on the Tigers, expects to see a very quick team and a quality football program at Hansen Field in Smithfield next Friday night. The Homecoming kickoff is scheduled for Friday, September 10th at 7:00 p.m.

Monday, September 6th begins Homecoming Week that includes various activities culminating in the battle of the big cats when the Bobcats square off against the Tigers in the Homecoming Football Game Friday night. The annual Homecoming Dance will take place Saturday, September 11th at 7:00 p.m. Other Homecoming Week events will include a Powder-puff football game that will feature two fierce teams made up of gridiron girls from Sky View. That game is scheduled for Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. at Hansen Field. Following the game will be a movie on the field at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday night the streets of Smithfield will be hopping with the Homecoming parade at 6:00 p.m., followed by the Mr. Sky View Pageant to be held at Sky View at 7:00 pm.

Stats

First Quarter

Jordan: Austin Grant 20 yd. Pass from McCoy Hill (Cody Rogers Kick) 8:08
Jordan: Taylor Loomis 20 yd. Pass from McCoy Hill (Cody Rogers Kick) 6:46
Jordan: Taylor Loomis 7 yd. Pass from McCoy Hill (Cody Rogers Kick) :42

Second Quarter

Sky View: Don Corbell 3 yd. Pass from Gabe Anderson (Josh Egbert Kick) 8:24
Sky View: Don Corbell 26 yd. Pass from Gabe Anderson (Josh Egbert Kick) 2:43
Jordan: Taylor Loomis 72 yd. Pass from McCoy Hill (Cody Rogers Kick) 2:29
Sky View: Corey Jensen 13 yd. Pass from Gabe Anderson (Josh Egbert Kick) 1:50
Jordan: McCoy Hill 3 yd. Run (Cody Rogers Kick) :28

Third Quarter

Jordan: Taylor Dean 7 yd. Pass from McCoy Hill (Cody Rogers Kick) 6:38
Jordan: Ethan Jones 34 yd. Pass from McCoy Hill (Cody Rogers Kick) 5:42

Fourth Quarter

Jordan: Austin Grant 1 yd. Run (Cody Rogers Kick) 8:19
Jordan: Baron Gajkowski 14 yd. Run (Cody Rogers Kick) 1:52

Individual Stats

Passing: Sky View, Anderson 21 of 40, 3 TD’s, 2 INT’s, 253 yds.; Jordan, Hill 5 TD’s, 385 yds.
Receiving: Sky View, Martin 9 catches, 110 yds.; Corbell 4 catches, 52 yds., 2 TD’s; Jensen 4 catches, 37 yds., 1 TD; Hill 1 catch, 34 yds.; Lee 1 catch, 13 yds.; Jorgensen 2 catches, 7 yds.
Rushing: Sky View, Anderson 11 carries, 66 yds.; Gero 2 carries, 47 yds.; Nielsen 1 carry, 16 yds.; Jorgensen 6 carries, 11 yds.; Oliverson 1 carry, 0 yds.
Kick Offs: Sky View, Wells 4 Kicks, Averages: 41.5 yds. Gross, 13.7 yds. Net
Kick Returns: Sky View, Wells 6 for 153 yds., Avg.: 25.5 yds.; Gero 1 for 12 yds.
Punts: Sky View, Nielsen 4 punts, Avg. 34.25 yds, 1 Blocked, 1 Fake – Result 1st Down; Anderson 1 punt, 25 yds.
Punt Returns: Sky View, Gero 1 for 18 yds.

Team Stats

Sky View: Passing-253 yds.; Rushing-140 yds.; Total Offense-393 yds.; Penalties: 14 for 119 yds.
Jordan: Passing-385 yds.; Rushing- 252 yds.; Total Offense-637 yds.; Penalties: 20 for 127 yds.