High school football: Spanish Fork grinds out win over Ridgeline in 4A semifinals

Put your head down, keep battling and good things will come is really the best way to describe what fourth-seeded Spanish Fork did in Thursday’s 4A semifinal against No. 1 seed and undefeated Ridgeline.
The effort wasn’t perfect, but the Dons were a determined team that never let the underdog role get to them as they went toe-to-toe with the RiverHawks before taking their first lead of the game with 23 seconds left to play and held on for a 21-14 victory.
“We’re a smash mouth team,” said Spanish Fork’s Kaden Vest. “We run the ball a lot and we throw it. We can do both, and we showed that today. That touchdown at the end was clutch by Brock (Jacobson).”
Vest and Jacobson, combined with quarterback McKay Smith. were stalwarts in the game just like they’ve been all season for the Dons. All three wheeled the offense down the field behind a determined line in a drive that started at their own 29-yard line with a little over two minutes to play.
The drive was capped when Jacobson took the direct snap and charged in from 9 yards out for the winner.
Spanish Fork coach Dustin Smith knew all three of the players would have a good game and that one of them was going to come up with the big play, but like everyone else on the sideline, in the stands and in the press box, Smith couldn’t stop talking about his defense’s effort and his defensive coaches’ preparation to come up with a game plan that held one of the more prolific offenses in the state scoreless in the second half.
“I expected it would be a shootout to be honest with you. Both offenses averaged over 40 a game,” said Smith. “This game was won by our defense, and it was won back in February and March. All the 6 a.m. lifts, all the hot practices this summer that we told the boys would pay off.
“I tell the boys all the time, ‘If you love the process, someday the process will love you back,’ and today it loved us back.”
The game looked like it had the potential to be the shootout everyone expected with a 14-14 halftime score, but the RiverHawks offense was flustered across the second half and couldn’t convert on the Dons’ mistakes, including an interception at the 1-yard line.
The RiverHawks also never seemed to recover from what looked like a touchdown on fourth down being called back for illegal touching that also resulted in a loss of downs.
“Credit to Spanish Fork, they played a great game, and they held us in check on offense and we couldn’t score,” said Ridgeline coach Travis Cox.
“We had an unreal team, really fun team to coach with great seniors and leadership. We’re going to miss them.”
Thursday’s outing proved to be a fun game, going down to the wire as one would expect in the semifinals. It wasn’t the high scoring battle that was predicted but still provided a nailbiter to close out the day of football playoffs at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“We knew we had to fight until the end, and it feels amazing to be going to the state championship,” said Spanish Fork’s Gage Christensen, who recorded an interception in the win.
It’s the second trip to the championship in 105 seasons of football for the Dons, who lost in 2012. They’ll have to wait until Friday to find out who their opponent will be as Sky View and Crimson Cliffs battle in the other 4A semifinal.