Draper • Summit Academy quarterback Hayden Reynolds watched nervously as Juan Diego star kicker Alex Saunders lined up a 47-yard field goal that would have given the Soaring Eagle an amazing come-from-behind victory Friday.
“I was just praying,” he said. “Just don’t go through.”
The last-second field-goal attempt fell just short to allow Reynolds and Summit Academy to survive 51-49 and tie the Soaring Eagle and Juab for the Class 3A South football title.
Reynolds did more than his share to give the Bears the title. He passed for six touchdowns and ran for another as Summit Academy roared to a 51-28 lead early in the third quarter.
But Juan Diego finally found its defense and turned this one into a classic.
“I know their defensive coordinator, Joe Colosimo, personally,” Reynolds said. “They are a great team. They came out in the second half and they battled. I respect them for that.”
Summit Academy coach Les Hamilton admitted he watched Saunders with more than a little nervousness as the Juan Diego kicker raced to line up what would have been the winning field goal as time was expiring.
“That’s the best kicker in the state,” the Bears coach said. “I watched him kick from 45 and 50 yards, and I thought, holy cow. We were fortunate to get out with a win.”
SUMMIT ACADEMY 51, JUAN DIEGO 49 <br>• Summit Academy races to a 51-28 lead early in the third quarter then survives a last-second 47-yard field-goal attempt. <br>• Tristen Tonzzi leads Juan Diego’s attack with rushing touchdowns of 21, 13 and 1 yards. <br>• Summit Academy, Juan Diego and Juab finish tied for first in Class 3A South going into next week’s state tournament.
A win for Juan Diego didn’t seem possible when Summit Academy scored on a 25-yard touchdown pass from Reynolds to Talmage Brown to take a 51-28 lead with 9:24 to play in the third quarter.
The Bears looked unstoppable.
“We have really good skill guys and we thought if they played us man to man, we might be able to break some big plays,” said Hamilton, who called this game the start of a great south valley rivalry between his charter school and the Catholic school located a few miles apart. “We got into a rhythm and our quarterback was on target all night.”
But Juan Diego and star quarterback Zach Hoffman just kept battling.
Tristen Tonozzi scored on a 1-yard run, and Hoffman broke free on a 35-yard scoring run then got the 2-point conversion to make it 51-43.
An interception by Dallin Davis set up a 6-yard touchdown run by Juan Diego’s Hunter Easterly with 1:11 left, but the 2-point conversion failed by inches.
Using timeouts, the Soaring Eagle stopped Summit Academy on four downs and drove to within field-goal range, only to see Saunders’ winning attempt fall short.
That left Class 3A South in a three-way tie for first place at the end of the regular season with a coin toss determining who will play who in the state tournament that starts Thursday.