New stadium, same old results.

Lone Peak football is annually one of the top programs in the state and celebrated the renovations to Knights Stadium on Thursday to open the 2023 season, rolling over Bingham 27-7 in Highland.

The school moved the home fans to the north side of the field and added new, larger bleachers, as well as a new snack bar and a new press box. What else is new? Senior Jackson Blake, the new starting quarterback for the Knights, who threw three touchdown passes in his season debut.

“Jackson has worked his butt off,” Lone Peak coach Bart Brockbank said. “It doesn’t look like it because he’s still rail thin but he gained a lot of weight in the off-season. He lifted hard and he was throwing all the time to his receivers, three or four times a week over the winter and into the end of summer. He just has a relentless work ethic and it shows. I thought he read the field so well. I was really proud of what he did tonight.”

Bingham downed Riley Whicker’s punt at the Lone Peak 1-yard line late in the first quarter, but the Knights responded with a 99-yard drive, most of it coming on a connection from the 6-foot-4 Blake to speedy Jasean Mayberry. Blake lofted the ball to Mayberry on a go route, and the sophomore outleaped his defender for the ball, kept his feet and sped 77-yards for the opening touchdown.

The Lone Peak passing game produced some more lightning on its next drive. Brooks Wilde broke open on a wheel route and Blake hit him in stride down the sideline. Wilde raced untouched 61 yards for another score and the Knights took a 14-0 lead with 10:31 to play in the half.

Bingham responded with its best drive of the night, converted a critical third-and-long before finishing with a 6-yard scoring strike from Anthony Salazar to Lucius Lutali to cut the deficit to 14-7 with 7:46 left in the half.

Adam Connors kicked a 47-yard field field with 3:50 remaining for a 17-7 Lone Peak lead. Bingham pushed to score right before the half and reached the Knights 1-yard line with under a minute to go. But the Lone Peak defense stiffened and big sack on third down by Bott Mulitalo forced a field goal. The Miners missed the short kick and the Knights took the 17-7 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Wesley Valgardson recovered a Bingham fumbled punt to set up the Knights first score of the second half. Blake found Wilde for a fourth down conversion, then hooked up with Trey Robinson on a pretty corner route for a 14-yard scoring play and a 24-7 lead with 7:03 to play in the third quarter.

Mulitalo produced another sack on Bingham’s next possession, forcing a fumble that was recovered by J.R. Tahi. Connors finished off a short drive with a 21-yard field goal for a 27-7 Lone Peak advantage with 7:47 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“I thought offensively we came out pretty good tonight,” Brockbank said. “I was a little nervous because we were breaking in a new quarterback and we had some other new people out there. I kind of thought we were going to come out balanced and we came out passing. Jackson did really well and I thought our offense grew up tonight.

“Defensively, I thought we started off a little slow on the defensive line. They (Bingham) were popping off some good runs on us. But by the third quarter, I think our young defensive line kind of grew up. It’s really fun to watch that.”

The two teams had split their past two meetings, with Lone Peak taking a 21-14 victory in the 2021 6A quarterfinals and Bingham earning a 25-19 win in last year’s quarterfinals.

Lone Peak (1-0) will take on one of Class 5A’s top teams, Timpview, next Friday in Highland. Bingham (0-1) will host Class 4A favorite Crimson Cliffs next Friday.