To cap off the Homecoming week celebration, the Sky View Bobcats welcomed the Bees from Box Elder to town on Friday. Coming into the game Sky View at 1-4-0 was the underdog against the 4-1-0 record of Box Elder. However, the Bobcats came to play and defended their house, putting up four scores Sky View exterminated the Bees in a 28-to-13 Homecoming victory.

After Max Benson sang the National Anthem, Sky View once again found themselves in a battle of field position as they traded offensive series with Box Elder. It was a battle that Sky View slowly began to win in the first quarter. With 3:34 on the clock the Bobcats struck first when senior quarterback Nick Carver tossed an 11 yard pass to Sean Gero. In his last game as a Bobcat, Gero put the first points on the board, and Josh Egbert, who with his four extra points on the night, kept his streak alive and is a perfect 10-for-10 on the season. The quarter ended with Sky View up 0-7.

At the end of the first quarter the Bees found themselves in striking distance as they moved the ball deep into Bobcat territory as the clock ticked down to zero. It only took a couple plays for Box Elder to capitalize when senior quarterback Britton Gunther scored on a 1 yard keeper. Trevor Cobbley hit the extra point and tied up the game at 7-7.

Sky View put together a long drive that included a 41 yard pass to senior receiver Brandon Burger that moved the Bobcats down to the Bee’s 13 yard line. After a Carver keeper didn’t pick up much, a pass to Corey Jensen moved the ball to the 5 yard line. On the next play with 9:41 in the second Carver sprinted around the left side and was untouched into the end zone, putting the Bobcats up 7-14.

The Bobcats appeared to have the second quarter pretty well wrapped up until the Bees last drive of the half. Unfortunately for the Bobcats the drive was kept alive, not as much from good things the Bees were doing, as it was by penalties committed by Sky View. Starting with a personal foul called on a late hit on the quarterback. The penalty was doubled when Conner Chambers who thought he had recovered a fumble headed for the end zone; but was hit with an un-sportsman like conduct penalty for spiking the ball when the play was blown dead. A later pass interference call against Yabitse Wells racked up 45 yards in penalties on the drive. Add in a couple of well executed plays by Box Elder and before anyone knew it, with the clock running out, the Bees were on the 1 yard line and looking to score with just .2 seconds. The Bees quarterback Gunter ran the ball in and scored as the clock registered 0:00. Cobbley missed the extra point to the cheers of the Sky View faithful, sending the teams to the locker room with Sky View up 13-14.

At halftime the crowd had a multitude of things to entertain them as the Vistauns started things off with a well choreographed dance routine. Once they were finished, the Homecoming Royalty was announced, where Mr. Sky View Grant Fuller, and Homecoming Queen Lexy Stott will reign supreme at this year’s dance. Other royalty members were 1st Attendant, Hailey Fife; 2nd Attendant, Taylor Regen; 3rd Attendant, Emily Hogate; and 4th Attendant, Kelli Reeder. Halftime was capped off with an impressive fireworks display put on by Fireworks West.

When the second half began the rest of the scoring was duties were handled by Sky View. With 7:08 on the clock in the third, Carver found sophomore Mitchell Berryhill sprinting down the right side of the field and hit him in stride for an 89 yard touchdown pass. Egbert added his third PAT and the Bobcats were up 13-21.

At 7:02 in the fourth quarter the Bobcats would find pay dirt one more time when Sky View capped off a long drive, with a Carver to Jensen 6 yard touchdown pass. Egbert would add his fourth PAT and make the final score 13-28.

Box Elder would swarm back with a final drive that threatened to put points on the board. Forced to pass the Bees moved the ball methodically down the field until they had the end zone in their sites. Unfortunately for them big number 52 had other plans, Tre’ Hansen intercepted the pass on the two yard line and rumbled past the Bees busting through the hive for an apparent score. But the Bobcats hurt themselves once again with a penalty when a block in the back away from the ball would negate the score.

Sky View put in a few back up players to close out the game. Sophomore Braxton Goderidge handled the quarterback duties for the last few plays of the game. Goderidge handed the ball off to Hunt before taking the final knee to run out the clock.

Carver had one of his better passing games so far this year going 14-of-23 for 252 yards and three touchdowns. Leading the way in receiving was Mitchell Berryhill with his 89 yard touchdown catch, followed by Brandon Burger with his two catches for 71 yards. Corey Jensen had five catches for 36 yards, while Sean Gero grabbed four for 40 yards. Alex Watts and Mitchell Larson each had a catch for 8 yards a piece. Commenting on his touchdown score Berryhill had this to say, “I just had to beat my guy in front of me, and I let my speed help me I guess. That play was something we thought we could try, the first time that we threw it he threw it over me; the second time it was right to me it was perfect.”

Head Coach Craig Anhder was pleased with the passing game. Anhder had this to say, “We’ve had some cases where we’ve had some drops in the past, and [tonight] kids were just catching the ball. When you catch the ball you can create drives, when you are creating drives you can set things up. I think we were able to set things up and move the ball that way.”

The Bobcats rushed for 122 yards led by the 58 yards on six carries by Skyler Hunt. Carver kept the ball fifteen times for 55 yards, and Alex Watts had seven touches for 25 yards. Gero lost 2 yards on two carries and Jensen had a carry for a 14 yard loss.

Defensively Milyon Chantry was in on eight tackles, Yabitse Wells was in on seven. Two Bobcats, Tyler Stevens and Conner Chambers each had six. One of Stevens tackles was for a loss of seven yards, and Stevens had two passes defended as well. Corbin Lee, Cole Bangerter, and Tre’ Hansen each had four tackles; Bangerter and Hansen each dropped a Bees runner for four yard losses. Ethan Dursteller, Conner Chambers, and Jaden Camphouse all teamed up for the Bobcats four sacks that totaled 24 yards in losses. Tyler Stevens commented on the defensive play saying, “Our whole defense, we came out tonight knowing we can’t lose, we just came out with that mentality that we’re going to win. We had a great night, we all played our spots very well. Our d-line they get worked on, they know their job and they get it done, and they get those sacks when we need them.”

When asked about the defensive play Anhder said, “Our defense came out with a real passion, I thought we had a great game plan, and kids came out believing in that game plan. They wanted to be successful, and I think you saw that in the look in their eye, and they are not backing down from anybody.”

On special teams Konner Christensen had four returns for 65 yards, while Alex Watts added 17 more yards on one return. Josh Egbert punted twice for 57 yards, averaging 28.5 yards-per-punt. Egbert was busy kicking the four extra points, while also kicking off five times three of which were touchbacks.

Sky View racked up 99 yards in penalties receiving 9 flags on the night, compared to Box Elder’s 63 yards in penalties also with 9 flags. Both teams picked up seventeen first downs a piece.

After the game Anhder said, “First and foremost I’m really glad we got a region win, you know where we’re trying to get into the playoffs, and have ambitions and goals and things like that. Our coaches put together a great game plan, and the kids followed the game plan, they executed it pretty well. There were some glitches that you know you always need to clean up, and they were apparent. But overall we executed our game plan better than they executed theirs, and we were able to come out on top. Our kids just never gave up, you know they believed in themselves at a time when not a lot of people believed in them. You know they’re down in their record, and we were playing a very good team, and our kids . . . they believe. They felt like they could go out and be successful, I felt like that belief grew into more and more confidence as the game went on.”

Next Friday the Bobcats play a very tough valley rival team in the Logan Grizzlies. Sky View 2-4-0 (1-1-0 Region) will make the short trip to Logan to face the 6-0-0 Grizzlies (2-0-0 Region). Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.