Manti and veteran coach Cole Meacham might have been excused for groaning when the Templars drew Judge Memorial in the first round of the Class 3A football tournament.
The Sanpete County team had lost two regular-season games, a state semifinal contest and a state championship to the Bulldogs in their last four meetings.
But the Templars broke open a close game with a dominating second-half performance and rolled to a 30-14 win on a beautiful Thursday evening at the McCarthey Stadium overlooking the Salt Lake Valley.
That earned Manti a tough second-round game next week at powerful Summit Academy.
But Meacham savored his team’s accomplishment, at least for a moment.
“This is the fifth time we’ve played Judge and the first time we’ve beat them,” smiled the coach. “They have a good program but may be having a down year.”
Manti played smash mouth football with big backs Dallin Rasmussen, Lance Fowles and Jace Miller mostly running behind a solid and bigger offensive line.
“We had to execute well,” said Rasmussen, who ran for two touchdowns. “We knew they would be strong.”
Quarterback Kyle King did not pass often, but he was effective when he did. A 40-yard strike to Travis Thompson set up the Templars’ first touchdown in the second half.
“We felt like we were ready to mix it up,” Meacham said. “Once we went up by seven, we decided to keep it on the ground.”
MANTI 30, JUDGE MEMORIAL 14 <br>• Manti wins for the first time in five tries against Judge to advance to the second round of the Class 3A playoffs. <br>• Templars running backs Dallin Rasmussen, Lance Fowles and Jace Miller score on short runs. <br>• Parker Edgington scores two touchdowns for Judge.
This was a game of numerous penalties and more than a few strange plays. None was weirder than a safety late in the first half that gave Manti a 16-14 lead.
The teams had given up fumbles and traded touchdowns. Manti struck first on a 3-yard touchdown run by Fowles, but Judge quickly fought back on runs of 3 and 14 yards by quarterback Parker Edgington to grab a 14-7 lead.
The Templars tied it on a Rasmussen run.
That’s when things got weird.
Judge gave up an interception then Manti threw another. But the referees called a penalty on Judge in the end zone as the Bulldogs tried to run the ball out of the end zone. That was ruled a safety.
Judge never seemed to recover from the controversial play. Manti, which was the bigger, more physical team, dominated both sides of the ball from that point on with Rasmussen and Miller both scoring.
And at last that Judge jinx was broken.