MT. PLEASANT—When the Hawks couldn’t handle the Thunder, they were spared by lightning.
North Sanpete football capped off a stressful week with a second straight loss, falling 43-7 to the Desert Hills Thunder in only 24 minutes. The second half of the game was not played due to lightning in the area, a factor that affected numerous games throughout the state as thunderstorms swept through Utah on Friday night.
With long downfield drives fueled by an efficient passing game, the Thunder methodically decimated the depleted Hawks, who were missing nearly a third of their starting lineup due to recent disciplinary action by Coach Rhett Bird and the UHSAA. The 36-point loss was the worst loss for the Hawks since losing 41-0 to Tooele at the beginning of the winless 2017 season.
Bird credited the offense for matching up well with the Thunder for the most part. “We felt like, really, there was just one kid on the field that we couldn’t block and that kind of disrupted everything we did,” Bird said. “Sometimes you play those bigger schools, and you just can’t do anything; but we didn’t feel like they took everything away from us. A couple times, we felt like we moved the ball pretty well.”
Shortly before the end of the first half, North Sanpete got on the board with a touchdown drive, avoiding what would have been the first instance of back-to-back shutout losses for the Hawks in over 30 years. After a touchdown by Desert Hills put them up, 36-0, Landon Bowles unloaded on the Thunder secondary with a string of medium hitch passes. After getting all the way down to the 1-yard line, Bowles connected over the defense with junior Beau Jacobsen, wide open in the middle of the end zone for the score.
Shortly before the half ended, North Sanpete had a chance to score again, driving to midfield, but Bowles’ attempt at a deep cross going left was picked off, giving him his seventh interception of the season.
Halftime proceedings went as normal for nearly the entire time with both performance groups being able to do their routines. The Hawks’ student section was lined up to usher the team back on the field when announcers voiced a weather delay. With the storm refusing to subside, the game was cancelled less than 10 minutes later.
North Sanpete fell to 2-2 on the season, wrapping up their non-region slate. The Hawks travel to face Richfield on Friday.
