Weber High football extends Roy’s first-round woes with stunning 31-14 upset win
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- Weber receiver Crash Coggins (6) celebrates a touchdown with teammate Danny Jenkins during a 6A first-round playoff game against Roy on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Weber receiver Salesi Moa (8) battles Roy’s Kili Eleneke (21) during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy.
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- Roy’s Jacob Viers (3) and Weber’s Teegan Humphries (16) battle for the ball during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Weber quarterback Aidan Carter (11) throws a pass as Roy’s Maxx Johnson (22) contests during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Roy running back DaeQwan Snider (4) runs behind a block of teammate Cole West (2) against Weber during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Weber High’s Nakosi Swain carries the football against Roy during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Roy quarterback Dru Gardner runs the football against Weber during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Roy’s Jacob Viers (3) runs the football toward Weber’s Tayven Norton (23) during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Roy running back Robert Young carries the football against Weber during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- A wide view of Roy High Schoo’s Ernest F. Durbano Field is seen during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
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- Roy quarterback Dru Gardner slides with the football against Weber during a 6A first-round playoff game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
ROY — Ever since Roy High School opened its doors in 1965, all the way through 2020, not a season went by without Roy and Weber facing off on the gridiron.
Over that 56-year span, never had the two squads met in a postseason clash until Friday evening.
Despite the ‘Shield Game’ going on a hiatus a year ago, the football gods — combined with some fortunate RPI calculations — ensured that a second campaign wouldn’t pass without a matchup between the long-time rivals.
In the end, the higher-seeded Royals saw their all-time record against their most-played opponent fall to 32-25 as the Warriors produced a stunning 31-14 victory to slam the breaks on Roy’s season in the first round of the 6A state tournament.
“You’re going to play whoever’s in front of you,” Weber coach Jayson Anderson said. “Obviously (playing Roy) means a little bit more because it kind of gives some of those bragging rights. I’m just super proud of our kids and how they played the game.”
With the victory, the Warriors will hit the road to face No. 5 Farmington on Oct. 28. Weber will have its hands full as the Phoenix dealt the Warriors a 35-7 defeat to open Region 1 play.
Even with the significant record disparity (7-3 for the Royals compared to the 2-8 Warriors), hosting a playoff contest was no assurance of victory for Roy. In fact, the Royals had a rather ignominious home playoff record of 7-9 coming in, which is the most all-time postseason home turf games played with a sub-.500 record across the entire state.
And once again — and for the third straight time in the first round — the Royals permitted the season to conclude in front of its own fanbase.
The Warriors came in unwilling to concede anything. They jumped on the scoreboard first and moved ahead each time the Royals caught them over the opening two periods of action.
“Just like it’s been the whole season, we’re going to be the underdogs but, shoot, we love it. We love to prove people wrong,” senior quarterback Aidan Carter said. “We haven’t been able to do it much this year, but throughout the week it was no different. We didn’t want to change anything. We have good players, we have good coaches; we just haven’t been able to put a whole game together yet.”
After Roy failed to convert a fake punt on fourth-and-2 at the 50 early in the first quarter, Weber capitalized. Crash Coggins made a nice adjustment on a 32-yard pass from Carter, hauling the ball in over a Royal defender before tumbling into the end zone for the game’s first points.
Both teams shuffled quarterbacks throughout the evening with five different players taking significant snaps.
Following the Weber touchdown, Roy put the ball in the hands of sophomore Robert Young out of the wildcat formation. The tactic was extremely effective as Young led the Royals on an 80-yard touchdown drive. He ran it seven times for 48 yards and then accounted for the other 32 yards with a pass to Kili Eleneke. Young capped the series with a 4-yard run to even the score.
Just like they would do all evening, Weber kept answering the bell. With 4:34 left until halftime, Carter floated an 11-yard pass to Nakosi Swain in the back of the end zone to make it 14-7.
“Roy is a good football team,” Anderson said. “They finished high in their region and won a lot of football games and we knew we’d have to play our best to beat them. Tip your hat to them. They’re well-coached and our guys just executed the gameplan perfectly tonight.”
Sans a three-play stretch early in the second quarter, Roy never went back to the effective wildcat formation which picked up chunks of yardage at a time while they ran it. The Royals did, however, muster enough offense to pull even again with the Warriors. Quarterback Colby Frokjer led another 80-yard Roy drive that was concluded once again by Young, this time on an 8-yard run.
Following a pair of punts in the waning moments of the half, Carter led a drive to set up a 37-yard Jayce Jones field goal with less than a second to play, giving Weber the last points that they’d need for a 17-14 halftime lead.
The Warriors took the second-half kickoff and burned 8:03 off the game clock. The backbreaker for Roy came when Carter tossed his third touchdown pass, this one going to freshman Salesi Moa for 5 yards.
As the intensity and physicality picked up, the Royals were unable to make any headway as the Weber defense pitched a second-half shutout.
With 58 seconds left in the third quarter, Weber moved its advantage to three scores when Tyce Abbott lofted a 27-yard pass to Moa streaking down the middle to make it 31-14.
“It’s kind of what we’ve been preaching all year,” Anderson said. “We’ve been in a lot of football games and we’ll have a couple of mistakes and it kind of gets away from us. I felt like this was the first time we actually put the full game together. Execution was on point and we came out on top.”
Over the final period, the Royals only touched the ball twice more. Weber’s Braylon Parker intercepted a pass to end one of the drives and the other culminated in a failed 51-yard field goal attempt.
“We’re going to have a good hard week of practice,” Carter said. “We’re hungry. Farmington’s a really good football team, but it’s going to be a good game. I’ll be excited for it.”
