Snow Canyon won the Utah Boys single-school championship, defeating Herriman 16-15 on a rainy Saturday at the University of Utah on the final play of the game.

The two tams went back and forth in a tight contest, and while Snow Canyon played well in the early going, could only produce two penalty goals from Sam Slivers. Meanwhile, Herriman scored twice to lead 10-6.

Herriman then broke through the Snow Canyon defense to score and take a commanding 15-6 lead.

It seemed as if Herriman would hold on, but, Snow Canyon got into Herriman territory, and then ran a nifty backline move that put fullback Richmond Anderson in under the posts. Suddenly, it was 15-13.

“That’s a play we work on and the boys made the call and executed it,” said Snow Canyon coach Jay Day. 

“We knew we would get one,” added scrumhalf Blake Day. “The guys did a great job and ran the play and it really helped us.”

Now with the score 15-13, and time winding down, Snow Canyon kicked deep into Herriman territory. The Mustangs tried to run it out, but the chase on the kick, especially from Jerod Opdahl, was very good. Opdahl made the tackle and Herriman was penalized for not releasing the ball. That’s all they needed. Slivers, who had has an excellent season for Snow Canyon, slotted the kick perfectly, and sealed the 16-15 victory.

“Sam Slivers is a great leader and we knew he’d do it,” said lock Ammon Takau, who said he was still praying just for a little extra help. “It was wet and muddy and that was tough for both teams. It was a really tough game in the rucks, but we knew it wasn’t out of reach. We knew we had more.”

“We had to tackle as hard as we could,” added Blake Day. “If it took two of us to make the tackle, that’s what we did.”

“This is a team of pretty small guys,” added Jay Day. “We don’t have a really big school. And we can’t say we’re bigger or faster than the other teams. All we have is that we play together, that we work hard and guys work as a unit. We’re not going to the NIT or anywhere else, so our whole season, including the close losses early on, was building to a crescendo for this championship.”