MANTI—As Templar alumni returned to the stadium, senior quarterback Kayson Douglas returned to the field in style as he led Manti football in a dominant win over Carbon, 42-13, at Homecoming last Friday.
Douglas completed 9 of 15 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns. Senior Larsen Pogroszewski was unstoppable as he had nine carries for a whopping 129 yards, more than 14 yards per carry. Pogroszewski also led all receivers with three catches for 88 yards, a total of 217 yards of offense for the senior.
The Templars netted 318 yards of total offense. On the flipside, Manti held the Dinos to 185 total yards, including only 19 rushing yards on 14 attempts.
The win moved Manti to 3-3 overall with a 1-0 start to Region 14 play.
After the last three weeks of play had pitted the Templars against the best of the 3A
North on the road, coach Cole Meacham said it was a good week to get confidence back and regain positive energy.
“Carbon’s a little improved from what they’ve been,” Meacham said, “but it was good to get a matchup that we could handle.”
It was a slow start for the Templars, as the outmatched Dinos gave maximum effort in the first quarter, but Manti eventually got into the red- zone where Douglas found junior Reggie Frischknecht on a corner route in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game with just over a minute left in the first quarter.
After a competitive first 12 minutes, Carbon just couldn’t keep up any longer, and the Templars took full advantage, scoring 28 unanswered points in the second quarter.
Several drives started with exceptional field position. Pogroszewski burst away from defenders for a 16-yard touchdown run, followed by back-to-back touchdown receptions from junior Hunter
Stevens. When all was said and done, the Templars took a 35-0 lead into halftime.
With a running clock already started in the second half, Manti regained possession and began driving for another score when Douglas took a late hit on a run out of bounds that sent him sprawling onto the racetrack. That was enough to persuade Meacham to send in sophomore backup Maison Starkweather.
Three plays later, Stark- weather took a shot at the endzone for his first pass attempt. It turned out to be his only pass attempt of the game as the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage, and a Carbon defender grabbed it out of the air and surprisingly ran it the full 100 yards back the other way for a pick-six.
Pogroszewski provided the retribution on the next drive with a 54-yard touchdown run, and Carbon scored one more time in the final minutes.
The Templars will be on the road this Friday to face Canyon View.
