Spartans Fall Short to Duchesne in Overtime

Vallyn Bernard

The Emery Spartan football season opened last Friday night with an endowment game against last year’s 1A state champions Duchesne Eagles. In an evening filled with many emotions from the recent tragedies in our county, along with almost overwhelming media attention, the Emery Spartans provided everyone with an exciting football game.

OK, let’s try and get a handle on what’s happened here. Our community has been turned upside down with six of our friends, neighbors and loved ones being trapped in one of the local coal mines. Add to this the heartbreaking news last Thursday of three rescue miners being killed and others seriously injured while trying to locate those trapped. Before the game a moment of silence for those trapped, killed, and injured and the Sky 2 News helicopter landing on the 50-yard line to deliver a game ball. The Spartan team captains presenting gifts to the families of the trapped miners along with the captains for the Duchesne football team presenting a $1,600 check collected from their community. Do you think there might have been some things messing up the focus of our Spartans Friday night?

I’m not working on excuses, just pointing out this is a real world we live in, and recently it delivered us a hard lesson on life. It’s been something none of us can brush off lightly and it can certainly effect a person’s concentration. In spite of this, our Spartans played an almost penalty free game, which is a sign of excellent discipline, especially for the first game of the season. In the first half the Eagles were held to only 38 yards in total offense, while the Spartans on a 12 yard touchdown run from Mike Jones took a 6 to 0 lead into the locker room.

Although Duchesne won this game in overtime, the Spartans pretty much controlled it on both sides of the ball. A couple of big plays by Duchesne broke the Spartans’ back in the second half. A 66-yard touchdown run by the Eagles tied the game in the third quarter. With less than four minutes to go in the game Dempsey Jeffs tossed a 16-yard pass to Jordan Gee just across the goal line to put the Spartans up by 6. Unfortunately, the ensuing kickoff wasn’t very good, giving the Eagles excellent field position which allowed them to move down the field and tie the game with just over a minute to go in the game. The Spartans ended up getting a couple shots at Duchesne’s end zone before time ran out.

In overtime the Spartan’s got the ball first, but only made it to about the 6-yard line. Duchesne in only two plays from the 25-yard line, both sweeps to the right, scored to win the game. Now that’s about all the play by play you’ll ever get from me. My feelings are if you want play by play come out to the game or listen to Chris Justice on KOAL radio, because I’ll just mess up someone’s name or who did what.

However, I am here to tell you our Spartans did a great job on the field Friday night under a lot of emotional pressure. They got their mouths’ bloodied, but can hold their heads up high. Has your life been a little out of joint the past few weeks? Think about having someone in great physical shape pounding a helmet into your solar plexus, or driving your head into the ground. I know I’ve had some problems staying focused lately, but I feel our Spartans did a wonderful job keeping their heads in the game Friday.

When I asked Coach Jones about his feelings on the game he naturally said he was saddened by the loss. “The defense played extremely well, but I’m somewhat disappointed with our offense. We made some first game mistakes, which is to be expected, but I’m still optimistic about the future of this team,” Coach Jones added.

The Spartans finished the game with 248 in total offense and really seemed to come alive offensively in the second half. The ball in this game has a funny shape and sometimes just doesn’t bounce your way. The season has just begun for the Spartans and there’s a good chance the ball will bounce their way this year. Friday night saw many fans out supporting our young men wearing Spartan armor. There’s no quit in these young men. If we do our part, they will do theirs.

The Spartans play Canyon View at home this Aug. 24, kickoff is at 7 p.m. See you there, and don’t forget your battle flag.

Volleyball Tournament Primes Spartan Team for Exciting Year

The Emery High Spartans Girl’s Volleyball Team traveled to St. George for a tournament Aug. 17-18, playing nine games and given the players a chance to work some of the kinks out of their game and come together as a team.

With the first regular season game coming Aug. 21 against Uintah, Coach Melissa Esplin felt the tournament was a good opportunity for her team.

“We tried a lot of different things and different rotations. Some of them worked and some of them didn’t,” she said.

With five seniors, five juniors, nine sophomores and five freshmen on the team Esplin said she felt like her team had a good shot and doing very well this year.

“I’m amazed at the resilience of the girls. We’re excited for this year,” she said.

With the season only just beginning, the Emery County community is invited to come out and support the volleyball team. Game times will be 3:15 p.m. for the Freshman team; 4:30 p.m. for the Sophomore team; 5:30 p.m. for the Junior Varsity team and 7 p.m. for the Varsity Team. The coaching staff is composed of Melissa Esplin, Kris Bell and Shanae Butler. The schedule for the season is:

Aug. 21: Emery vs. Uintah at Home;
Aug. 24-25: Varsity Tournament at Weber;
Aug. 24-25: Sophomore and J.V. Tournament at San Juan;
Aug. 28: Emery vs. North Sevier at North Sevier;
Aug. 30: Emery vs. Richfield at Richfield;
Sept. 6: Emery vs. Union at Union;
Sept. 7-8: Sophomore and J.V. Tournament at Carbon;
Sept. 11: Emery vs. Duchesne at home (no freshman game);
Sept. 18: Emery vs. North Sanpete at home;
Sept. 20: Emery vs. Juan Diego at home;
Sept. 25: Emery vs. Delta at Delta;
Sept. 27: Emery vs. Carbon at home;
Oct. 4: Emery vs. North Sanpete at North Sanpete;
Oct. 9: Emery vs. Juan Diego and Juan Diego;
Oct. 11: Emery vs. Delta at home;
Oct. 16: Emery vs. Carbon at Carbon
Oct. 26-27: State tournament.