1 / 6

Lone Peak players celebrate a 13-7 victory against Skyridge in a 6A football semifinal at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

2 / 6

Lone Peak's Tate Barney makes a move against Skyridge in a 6A football state semifinal at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

3 / 6

Lone Peak's Jaron Pula (5) reaches for a pass against Skyridge in a 6A football state semifinal game against Lone Peak at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

4 / 6

Lone Peak quarterback Kepa Niumietolu (right) runs the ball as teammate Tate Barney blocks against Skyridge in a 6A football state semifinal game against Lone Peak at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

5 / 6

6 / 6

Lone Peak quarterback Kepa Niumeitolu runs with the football against Skyridge in a 6A semifinal at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025.

Harold Mitchell, Special to the Herald

❮ ❯

Given the school’s history in athletic excellence, it’s somewhat easy to overlook the uncommon challenges Lone Peak football had to overcome this season in earning yet another slot in the 6A state championship game. The Knights will square off versus Corner Canyon on Thursday as one of the last two teams standing in the 6A classification after a season beset by injury, some internal strife, along with some otherwise uninspired outcomes to finish out the regular season.

But Lone Peak ultimately reassessed, regathered, put their collective heads down to overcome all of it in arriving to its current status.

“This year has been extremely unique, at least during my nine years coaching here,” said Lone Peak Coach Bart Brockbank. “We started off the season strong, and we knew we had a ton of talent, but we sort of got complacent, I think, midway through, and found ourselves really starting to doubt ourselves…But we’ve made a ton of progress to kind of get back to being the team we knew we could be, and all the credit goes to the players.”

Indeed the Knights were rolling out of the gate, and topped off a 5-1 start to the season with a resounding 42-21 win over defending 6A state champion Corner Canyon. But things went south from there, with Lone Peak taking consecutive losses to American Fork, Skyridge and Lehi to finish off the regular season, putting Brockbank’s team’s chances at a state championship very much in doubt.

As mentioned, injuries played a substantial role in Lone Peak faltering down the stretch of the regular season, with several notable starters missing time, which included starting quarterback Kepa Niumeitolu missing the final stretch due to an MCL injury. Sure, junior backup Cruz Christensen had his moments, and was central in the Knight’s big win over Corner Canyon, but the lack of Niumeitolu’s presence affected the team’s overall resolve and culture.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Cruz, he did awesome for us this year, but the thing with Kepa is that he was our natural leader last year, and was again this year, and the entire team just follows him,” Brockbank said. “He has that great leadership quality, and him going down I felt made him lose some of his mojo, and that affected the team, too, since they look to him when things aren’t going well.”

“It’s been hard, I’m not going to lie,” Niumeitolu added. “Not being able to be out there when my team in struggling, in practices and in games, it was very frustrating for me. There was some doubt whether I could come back, but now that I’m able to be out there for my team with a chance to win a championship is a huge blessing. I couldn’t ask for more and I thank God for helping me get through this.”

Fortunately for Lone Peak, it had a full three weeks following its final game of the regular season until the first game of the playoffs, which Brockbank used as sort of midseason team camp in an effort to get his team back on track.

“We went full bore every practice during that three week break,” Brockbank said. “It was ones versus ones and everyone was willing to take hits and risk injury because we needed it. It got really competitive, and there were several fights between offense and defense, but the juices got back flowing and it sort of fixed some of the internal issues we’d been having, along with some other things that we did.”

Central to all of it was Niumeitolu, who made certain to conduct some players-only meetings and other team activities in order to get his team back on track.

“We did a team hike that brought us together a lot, along with the meetings, and everyone just came back together, I felt,” Niumeitolu said. “I’m so proud of all my boys for doing it because we could have just gave up. But we knew what we wanted and we were confident we could get it.”

A renewed Lone Peak product proved it was back on track immediately, dealing Farmington a 41-14 opening round loss before squeezing out a 41-38 overtime win over Davis in the quarterfinal round. The semifinal round saw the Knights get by Region 3 foe Skyridge 13-7, using great ball control and shutdown defense to limit a Falcon team that had proven dominant up to that stage of the season.

Now there’s just one hurdle to overcome for Lone Peak to achieve its ultimate goal, although that hurdle is a tall one.

“Corner Canyon is obviously a great team that is very well-coached and they’ve had a lot of success,” Brockbank observed. “I love the battles we’ve had with them and we hope to give them another great battle this year, but obviously want to come out on the winning side this time.”

Last year saw the Knights take a narrow 30-27 loss to the Chargers in a game where Niumeitolu wasn’t allowed to finish due to being ejected by officials late in the fourth quarter. The call was a controversial one, and absolutely hindered Lone Peak’s chances to take home the win, with Niumeitolu determined to make the most of his chance at redemption this season.

“Having that happen last year was definitely one of the worst experiences I’ve had in my life, so getting the opportunity to make that right is a huge blessing,” he said. “It’s motivated me throughout the offseason and it’s motivated me to get through my injury and do whatever I can to make it right for Lone Peak and for my family. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”