San Juan football team demolishes Bayfield for 28th win in a row, moves to 3-0 on season

by Rhett Sifford
Sports Editor
he San Juan High School football team cruised to their state-leading 28th win in a row and moved to 3-0 on the season with a 61-0 beatdown of Bayfield on Friday, August 25.
The game was the first of only three the Broncos will play in front of their home crowd during the regular season this year. They’re hoping of course to play a fourth in the second round of the 2A Utah State Tournament in October.
From the moment the game began this past Friday it was never in doubt. San Juan scored three touchdowns in the first quarter, added three more in the second for a 41-0 halftime lead.
They punched three more across the goal line in the second half despite the fact that the clock was running from the start of the third quarter for the remainder of the game.
After two games of run-heavy offense, the Broncos got the passing game into the mix against Bayfield. Senior quarterback Parker Snyder was an impressive 20 for 26, throwing for 253 yards and four touchdowns.
Junior receiver Jake Ivins had a breakout night, catching nine passes for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Senior Anthony Done was solid again, catching six passes for 69 yards and a TD. Brigham Nielson caught his first touchdown of the season, a 30-yarder.
It was obvious the Wolverine defense was keying on Bronco senior running back Zack Conway. But even though they held him to 81 yards on ten carries, he still managed to break into the end zone three times.
Backup quarterback, junior Jaiten Knight was the second-leading rusher on the night with 68 yards on two carries. Late in the game, with the underclassmen running the offense for San Juan, both backup QBs took turns rushing for touchdowns.
Knight’s came on a very nice 60-yard run off right guard. Jagger Nieves rumbled in from 18 yards out for his first TD of the season.
Three San Juan defensive players co-led the team in tackles with seven, Trace Bennett, Jake Ivins, and JD Palmer. Zack Conway registered the Broncos’ lone sack on the night.
San Juan also forced four Bayfield turnovers in the win. Jake Ivins recovered two fumbles, Trace Bennett scooped one, and Brigham Nielson snagged his second interception of the season.
The Broncos racked up 25 first downs on the night, but one area of concern is that they also racked up 150 yards of penalties. Most of that came in the second half during a period of “interesting” officiating.
Through the first three games of the season Snyder has completed 52 of his 78 passing attempts (67 percent) for 798 yards and seven touchdowns. He’s averaging 266 passing yards per game.
Zack Conway leads the rushing attack with 421 yards on 41 carries (140.3 yards/game) and nine TDs. Snyder has six rushing touchdowns with 261 yards on 31 carries.
Anthony Done has moved into the lead among receivers over the past two weeks and now sits with 191 yards on 16 catches and two touchdowns. Conway has seven catches for 173 yards and a TD.
Jake Ivins is up to 132 yards on ten catches with two touchdowns. Javin Montella has 130 yards on six catches and a TD. And Brigham Nielson has eight catches for 106 yards and a touchdown.
Ivins leads the defense with 30 tackles through three games. JD Palmer has made 26 stops, Jaiten Knight has 22 tackles, Jordan Duke has 20, and Trace Bennett rounds out the top five with 19.
Following the game San Juan Head Coach Barkley Christensen said, “Our theme this week was ‘dominate.’ It doesn’t matter who we’re up against, we gotta play to our standard and bring it.” He praised the defense again also, saying they had another great game.
This week it will be the battle of the blue and gold when the Broncos travel up to Bluffdale for the second season in a row to take on the Summit Academy Bears.
Summit is 2-1 on the season with wins over Taylorsville and Skyline, both 5A schools. The Bears suffered a hard-fought loss to 1A powerhouse Duchesne this past Friday 29-25, so they’ll be looking to get back in the win column.
Though Summit lost their potent 2022 passing duo of Devin Watson and Koa Sylvester to graduation, new senior quarterback Kyan Anderson is holding his own. In the Bears’ first three games he’s averaging 213 yards and has thrown for five touchdowns.
A trio of receivers, seniors Josh Morrill and Aden Stines along with junior Kyle Lively, are doing most of the work so far. Junior running back Bronson Dixon is having an excellent season so far with 310 yards rushing and three touchdowns.
It should be a fun matchup for the Broncos this Friday, September 1 on the road. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. You can catch the live broadcast beginning at 6:30 on Redrock 92 Radio with streaming video tentatively returning to pictureitpalmer.com.
If for some reason the Picture It Palmer website is still down, you’ll be able to find the video stream at streamutah.live.