Felt’s Facts – 2016 Week 5

The Unbeaten and the Winless

The number of undefeated teams dropped from 18 to 10 last week, while six squads picked up their first victory, leaving 21 still working for that first win.

Just one contest matches winless teams: Bonneville at Ogden.

No games pit unblemished Utah teams against each other, but 4-0 East travels to 3-0 De La Salle (Concord, Calif.). East is ranked 97th nationally in MaxPreps while the Spartans are 23rd.

Fast Starts

Enterprise is off to its best-ever start. (Enterprise mentor Andy Messersmith is the only first-time head coach still undefeated.) Of the other nine teams sporting 4-0 records, five seek to start 5-0 for the first time in several seasons. Layton last won its first five games in 1987, Beaver in 1992, Alta in 2003, Fremont in 2004 and Pine View in 2007.

Bingham, East, South Summit and Springville all opened 11-0 or better at least once over the past three seasons.

Week 5’s Most-played Rivalries (min. 50 games)

Springville and Spanish Fork meet for the 90th time since 1920. Springville leads the series 45-41-3 and has captured the last three. It’s the eighth most-played rivalry in the state. Since 1928, they only failed to meet in 1938 and 2008.

Milford battles Parowan for the 84th time. Milford defeated Parowan last year to snap the Rams’ four-game winning streak in the series; the Tigers lead 43-37-3.

Heading into their 71st meeting, Delta dominates its series with North Sanpete 55-13-2, but NS enjoys a four-game winning streak against the Rabbits.

Lehi faces Pleasant Grove for the 59th time with Lehi up 29-27-2. The Vikings have won 15 in a row from Lehi going back to 1973. However, since 1984, they’ve only knocked heads seven times, including the past five years. Lehi hasn’t defeated the Vikings since a 3-0 shutout in 1972.

Richfield and Juab tangle for the 51st time. Richfield leads the series 28-21-1, but the Wasps have won the last nine meetings.

First-time Matchups

Four games pit teams for the first time: American Fork at Maple Mountain, East at De La Salle (Calif.), Skyridge at Corner Canyon and Tooele at Ridgeline.

Coal Bucket Showdown

Emery and Carbon battle for the Coal Bucket for the 26th time. Emery has hauled home the traveling trophy 23 times, including the last 13 in a row. Carbon’s wins in the series came in 1994 and 2000.

Milestones

Judge seeks its 450th overall victory, while Bonneville goes for No. 350 … American Fork plays its 800th contest.

Kory Bosgieter picked up his 50th win at Fremont last week; now he tries for career victory No. 100 including 49 at Weber.

The Top-Five…

Scoring teams: Beaver 50.0 ppg, East 49.3, Alta 45.8, Bingham 45.0, Fremont 43.5.

Defensive teams: Rich 4.7, Pine View 7.3, Desert Hills 8.8, Enterprise 9.5, Beaver 10.0.

By winning margin: Beaver 40.0, East 33.0, Bingham 32.3, Pine View 31.3, Fremont 28.3. Of note: Beaver has scored at least six touchdowns in each of its first four games.

What Sports Season is it?

During Week 2, Olympus nipped Highland in a 5-3 baseball-like score. Last week, as prep followers well know, Jordan defeated Taylorsville in an equally unlikely 91-83 basketball-like score.

Here’s a recap of the team records set or tied:

• Total Offense Yards – 930, Jordan (ranks third nationally, all-time).
• Total Combined Yards – 1,734 (not kept nationally)
• Most Points By a Losing Team – 83, Taylorsville (not kept nationally)
• Most Combined Points in a Quarter – 65 (ties state record, not kept nationally)

And the individual records set or tied:

• Total Offense Yards – 738, Crew Wakley, Jordan (ranks second nationally, all-time)
• Most Touchdowns Responsible For – 11, Dane Leituala, Taylorsville and Wakley. (ranks eighth nationally)
• Touchdown Passes – 8, Leituala (ties state record, ties for 29th nationally)

Taylorsville’s 804 yards of total offense ranks second all-time in Utah and 14th nationally. The combined points, 174, is also second all-time (to the 181 scored when Carbon rolled South Emery 175-6). (Incidentally, South Emery was located in Ferron and played football for nine seasons from 1925-1933, compiling a 10-17-4 record.)

Leituala’s 704 yards of total offense places second in Utah and fourth nationally. His 495 passing yards ties for 12th most all-time in the state. Wakley’s 491 ranks 16th.

Jordan kicker Emily Bleumel, just a sophomore, booted 13 extra points, the third-most in Utah prep history.

Provo Gets Defensive – and Special

While Jordan and Taylorsville participated in an offensive scoring fest, Provo relied on defense and special teams to defeat Mountain View 45-3. The Bulldogs scored their final five touchdowns on two punt returns – both by Tevita Ika, two pick-sixes and a fumble return.

Ika’s punt returns match the state record. Since 1980, 17 players have returned two punts for touchdowns; Ika is the first to do it since 2013.

Even more remarkably, Ika returns came on successive punts. Records for scoring on back-to-back punt returns aren’t kept locally or nationally, but in any case, his accomplishment is certainly a rare event.

Provo scored 21 defensive and special team points in 4:20. But that doesn’t come close to the 31 Hunter’s defense scored in 3:00 against Taylorsville in a 1993 contest (Hunter won 68-0).

Another Scoring Streak Ends

Duchesne suffered its first shutout since the 2009 Class 1A championship game. The Eagles had scored in a school-record 72 games.

Career Reception Records

In the midst of the Jordan-Taylorsville point-a-thon, Jordan receiver Spencer Curtis moved up in three career categories. He jumped to second from fifth in receiving yards (3,506). He needs only 66 yards to surpass the state record set by Brighton’s Simi Fehoko just last year. Curtis climbed to third in receptions (200) and to sixth in TD catches (33).

Fremont’s Haze Hadley now has 2,094 reception yards, which places him 19th all-time.

Provo’s Ty Jones has snared 26 TD catches, ranking him tied for 17th all-time.

See you on the sidelines!

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