Broncos cruise past Emery into state semifinals, will face South Summit in Herriman on Friday

The San Juan High School football team is two wins away from a sixth straight 2A Utah State championship after a 48-0 mercy rule victory over Emery in Blanding on October 30.

The Broncos collected seven touchdowns in the state quarterfinal matchup with the Spartans. Impressively, Brigg Palmer, who was injured in the final game of the regular season October 15, stormed back with a vengeance to score five of those on his own.

Appropriately, Palmer’s 50-yard touchdown run four minutes into the fourth quarter brought the game to an early end due to Utah’s new 45-point mercy rule.

Storms rolled into Blanding around 45 minutes prior to the scheduled kickoff time of 6 p.m. and lightning in the area forced a postponement of the traditional warmup period.

The lightning held off long enough for the game to get started on time, but it was delayed again for lightning with 2:56 left in the first quarter and the Broncos already up 13-0.

Following the mandatory 30-minute delay the game got back underway and was completed without hitch from that point although rain was falling heavily for most of the first half.

Both teams struggled to even snap the ball in the first half and struggled to hang onto it when the ball was snapped. Passing was a challenge throughout the half so San Juan had to rely heavily on the running game.

Fortunately Brigg Palmer showed no signs that his injury two weeks prior had any effect on his game. He was a huge factor in the win, carrying the ball 23 times for 268 yards. His 1,887 total yards on the season are third in the state.

Palmer helped his team stretch their lead to 27-0 just shy of midway through the second quarter with a 13-yard TD run up the middle.

Just over two minutes later when Andrew Nielson took a shuttle pass from Beau Yeomans and scampered in from four yards out the Broncos led 35-0. That set the clock to begin running at the beginning of the third quarter.

San Juan added two touchdowns to seal the victory in the mercy-rule-shortened second half, both on Brigg Palmer runs.

Despite the lack of passing from both teams Beau Yeomans still had a fairly solid night in the rain for the Broncos. He was 11-for-22 for 89 yards and two touchdowns, both to Andrew Nielson.

Nielson had three total catches on the night for 29 yards and the two TDs. Randall Black had four catches for 38 yards and Brigg Palmer caught two passes out of the backfield for 23 yards.

The Bronco defense was lights-out all night, allowing just 40 yards rushing and 61 passing. It was San’s first shutout win since they beat Summit Academy 51-0 in the state semifinals three seasons ago.

Thomas Hardin had a banner night, leading the team with ten tackles. He leads the team with 112 tackles on the season and that is currently tied for ninth in the state.

Brigg Palmer had eight stops and Landon Turk had six. Pearce Holliday, Cameron Adair, and Jayce Raisor had five tackles apiece.

Cameron Adair recorded two sacks in the win and Gaige Palmer had one. San Juan forced two fumbles with Brigg Palmer recovering one and Pearce Holliday the other.

Bronco Head Coach Barkley Christensen, who won his 16th straight playoff game on the night, said he was most impressed with how tough the players were in the challenging field conditions.

He is looking for his 95th win as head coach this Friday, November 6 when the team travels to Herriman to take on the #4-seeded South Summit Wildcats.

It will be the second rematch of the 2025 2A Utah State Championship Game, played on the very same field at Zions Bank Stadium.

The teams met in Blanding on September 11 in a game that San Juan won by 30 points 58-28. The Broncos are looking to repeat that result on Friday and punch their ticket to their sixth straight state championship game.

Though StreamUtah.Live doesn’t have the rights to stream video of the game on Friday, there will be an audio-only stream with live stats onscreen.

The game will also be broadcast on Redrock 92 Radio. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. and the stream/broadcast will begin at 12:30 p.m.