Templars fall to Pine View, 44-28 in opener

MANTI—Manti quarterback Kingston Wright threw for 525 yards and three touchdowns, but Pine View came away with a 44-28 victory over the Templars in Manti’s season opener on Friday, Aug. 14.

The play caller for Manti completed 41 of 56 passes and connected with Trever Christensen for two touchdowns. Christensen finished with 12 receptions for 243 yards, including touchdown catches of 61 and 38 yards.

Isaiah Wright also took in a 19-yard score, while Stetson Thomson scored Manti’s fourth touchdown on a 3-yard run.

Kingston Wright finished with 12 receptions for 131 yards and also contributed 4 rushing yards and 53 yards on kickoff and punt returns. Thomson rushed 11 times for 23 yards and caught 10 passes for 64 yards.

Manti finished with 553 total yards, including 525 through the air and 28 on the ground.

“We need to work as a team better,” Kingston Wright said. “We struggled the second half, and we didn’t communicate very well, defensively or offensively. We just weren’t doing very good. We have a lot of work to do over the next couple weeks.”

Kingston Wright accounted for 526 total yards, adding one rushing yard to his passing total. He threw three interceptions, while Christensen also attempted one pass that was intercepted.

Defensively, Manti recorded 56 total tackles, including 32 solo tackles and 24 assisted tackles. The Templars had four tackles for loss and one sack.

Hayden Crane led Manti with 11 tackles, including eight solo stops and three assists. Cameron Lund had seven tackles, while Jacob Cox recorded six. Christensen and Thomson finished with five and four tackles, respectively.

Chaetton Osborn recorded Manti’s lone sack.

Cox said after the game, “I think we played well, but it was just a little mistakes. Those little mistakes will get fixed with more practice. We definitely have to work on our turnovers. Those killed us. Just a little things, little assignments.”

Defensive end Tevon Vakautakakala echoed the sentiments of Cox, saying, “We were a little down tonight. We’ll fix that. We’ve got a lot of two-way players and we need to find ways to be able to stay out on the field. We’re going to work on that.”

On special teams, Trevor Steinfeldt converted all four of his extra-point attempts and handled Manti’s kickoff duties, recording five kickoffs for 249 yards. The Templars also punted twice for 77 yards, with Trevor Vakautakakala averaging 42 yards on one punt.

Manti (0-1) will travel to Draper to face Juan Diego Catholic (0-1) this Friday night, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.