San Juan football team cruises to second straight lopsided victory

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
The San Juan High School football team welcomed the Emery Spartans to Blanding this past Thursday, October 9 in the Broncos’ final home game in the regular season.
For the second straight week it ended in a lopsided victory for the home team, this time to the tune of a 65-14 final. It could have been much worse if the Broncos hadn’t pulled their starters after the first half.
They scored 40 points in the first quarter (their 47 first-quarter points against Grand was the ninth-most in Utah history), then added 19 points in the second quarter to lead 59-7 at halftime.
San Juan scored early and often on Emery as those starters racked up lots of yardage and touchdowns in a game that was very similar to the Broncos’ matchup with Grand County the previous week.
With the win San Juan improves to 7-2 on the year and they are ranked second in the Utah 2A standings.
Beau Yeomans had another outstanding night, completing 18 of his 21 pass attempts for 261 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions.
His main target was Tripp Palmer, who caught three passes for 84 yards and two TDs. Jagger Nieves made two catches for 67 yards out of the backfield. Nache Young had four catches for 36 yards.
Cole Duke caught two touchdown passes while Brigg Palmer and Randall Black got one TD catch apiece while the junior varsity offense was on the field.
Jagger Nieves ran the ball 15 times in the Broncos’ win, adding 212 yards and three touchdowns to his already impressive resume.
Nieves now leads the state of Utah with 1,582 rushing yards (20th in the nation). His 210 points scored leads the state and is fifth in the nation. His 33 touchdowns leads the state and is third in the nation.
In addition to those current season statistics, Nieves is steadily moving up the list in a couple all-time Utah State career categories.
He’s now tied with Zack Conway (2023) for fourth in total touchdowns scored with 71 and he moved ahead of Conway into fourth in career points scored with 444.
His 33 rushing touchdowns this season is tied with Kyle Curtis (2001) for fifth-most in a season in Utah history and is one behind Zack Conway. He’s three rushing touchdowns away from cracking the top ten in the all-time career mark in that category.
Tripp Palmer’s 937 receiving yards currently ranks eighth in the state and his 80 points scored is ninth. Beau Yeomans’s 2,494 total yards is 13th in the state.
Individual achievements aside, the Broncos have been gathering lots of momentum as a team heading down the homestretch of the regular season.
Though they are beginning to show what they’re capable of, Head Coach Barkley Christensen says they still haven’t completely arrived and have some more to show this season.
They will have an opportunity to showcase how far they’ve come when they close out their regular season in Monroe this Friday, October 17.
It may have been unexpected at the beginning of the season, but it turns out to be an interesting matchup with 2A #2 San Juan visiting #1 South Sevier. The Broncos are 7-2 on the season; the Rams are undefeated at 9-0.
It could be said that San Juan’s regular season schedule has been much more challenging than South Sevier’s. Everyone will discover exactly where the two teams stand when they do battle this weekend.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on Friday. Join Redrock 92 Radio and StreamUtah.Live for the live broadcast starting at 6:30.