ST. GEORGE — Austin Staheli found out he was the starting quarterback about 10 minutes before game time Friday night for Snow Canyon and the junior signal-caller made the most of his second career start by passing for a touchdown and rushing for another in the Warriors 51-7 rout of the Carbon Dinos.
“We were undecided because (regular starter) Matt Kitchen is still not quite 100 percent with the knee,” SC coach Mike Esplin said. “It’s nice having two quarterbacks that get reps and know how to play. We’re trying to be really careful with Kitchen, but Staheli looked really good.”
The Warriors scored on their first six possessions of the game, building the lead to 41-0 at the half. The domination was so overwhelming that the Dinos didn’t even have a first down until the final two minutes of the half, after the Warriors had already scored six touchdowns.
Meanwhile, the offense was clicking, with Staheli, and then Kitchen, completing all seven of their pass attempts in the first half, including a 40-yard deep ball from Staheli to Tyson Deland and a 15-yard strike from Kitchen to Andy Day. SC also got first-half TD runs from Chris Poulsen (8 yards), Britton Webster (3 yards and 5 yards) and Alex Kennedy (5 yards).
Staheli added a 29-yard TD scamper in the third quarter and Day rounded out the scoring for the Warriors with a 37-yard field goal.
Carbon’s only score came on a fumble on an exchange by the Warriors that was picked off in the air and run in for 25 yards by Taden Gray in the third.
Snow Canyon, 1-2, gained 366 yards in the game, even with the mercy-rule clock running in the second half. Staheli, Kitchen and third-stringer Macai Lee combined for 119 passing yards and Staheli had 62 rushing.
The lone bright spot for the Dinos was running back Ashton Larsen, who finished the game with 134 rushing yards. He accounted for all but eight of Carbon’s total offensive output.
The Warriors play at Ogden next week in the final tune-up before region play begins.
For more pictures, quotes and insight from the game, see the Saturday Breakdown Saturday morning on St. George News.
Stats: carsc9216
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @oldschoolag
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.