As league play starts to heat up across the Beehive State on the gridiron, history was made by one of our local teams in their out-of-state win against a team from Arizona.

There were plenty of sparkling performances in this contest as well as by other individuals on area teams:

Pick-6s galore for Lone Peak: The Knights won their game 35-24 at Highland, Arizona thanks to four pick-6s.

That’s right. Four interceptions returned for touchdowns accounting for four of the five touchdowns scored for Lone Peak. If you have never heard of such a thing, it’s because football historian George Felt said it has never happened before in the history of Utah prep football.

A total of 15 Beehive state teams have had three pick sixes in a game, but no team has had four until Lone Peak did it last Friday night.

Jaxson Arrington had two of them going for 80 yards to paydirt in his first and then 53 yards in his second that clinched the win for the Knights. He is just the 37th player in the state to have two pick-6s in a game.

Arrington’s teammate Easton Merrell had the longest one that covered 83 yards to put Lone Peak ahead 7-0. Mattias Nawahine added a 40-yard pick six in the second quarter.

The Knight offense, which didn’t get that much time on the field, did score one touchdown as Logan Hofheins hauled in a 24-yard pass from Isaac Staley. Adam Connors had five extra points to account for the rest of the Knight scoring.

Making the California trip: Over the years, Provo has seen its rival Timpview in football, or its own basketball program, make exotic trips to Hawaii or venture out-of-state to venues for competitions.

So traveling to Clovis, California for the first time in program history to take on one of the top Golden State programs is a big step for the program. No doubt that over the last several years under the direction of Tony McGeary and current head coach Kirk Chambers, Provo has stepped up its game.

Provo didn’t embarrass itself either, losing 41-24 to the Timberwolves. It so happens that the Bulldogs will play another team of Timberwolves from Timpanogos, but this time only a 20-minute bus ride or so separates the two schools.

Two shutouts in Region 7 play: Two of the three games in 5A Region 7 last week were shutouts. Both were surprising as Timpview blanked Springville 17-0, while Orem ran roughshod over Wasatch, 44-0.

Springville had scored 116 points in its three victories while Wasatch, although 1-4, has still shown capability of putting up the points, scoring 134 points in its first four games.

In Orem’s win, Kaue Akina kicked four field goals and four extra points and also scored two touchdowns. Roger Saleapaga electrified the Golden Tiger faithful with a 95-yard kick return to open the second half as the rout was on.

In one league contest, a lot of points were put on the board as Maple Mountain defeated Cedar Valley, 56-37. Maple Mountain’s Bank Jackson ran for three scores and tossed for another three with Easton Merrell being the recipient of all of these touchdown connections. Isaac Cline had two touchdowns receiving while Chevas Gregory ran in two scores in the losing cause for the Aviators.

Righting the ship: After starting the season 0-2, the Dons hit the reset button, stunning Orem 44-38 in overtime and winning their last two games against Uintah and Mountain View, outsourcing these two Region 8 rivals 77-14.

In the 35-7 win against Mountain View, McKay Smith tossed four touchdown scores, two of them to Tyson Mansfield.

Special teams and defense spark Salem Hills to victory: After Payson had cut Salem Hills’ lead to 7-6, the Skyhawks” Kort Stewart took the ensuing kickoff back 90 yards to the house, his second touchdown of the game, to give his team a 14-6 lead.

The real back-breaking play came with Salem Hills leading 21-12 but with Payson having possession of the pigskin. With just three minutes remaining in the final stanza, Ledger Holmes had a 55-yard pick six that put Salem Hills ahead, 27-12.

Payson had one last touchdown to pull within eight points but the onside kick was recovered by Salem Hills to give the home team a hard-fought 27-19 win against its rival.

American Fork and Pleasant Grove score impressive wins: American Fork shut out Bingham, 28-0. The ease of victory should put the scare into the other contenders in Region 3 and 6A football. Dylan Story had two touchdown passes to pace the Caveman offensive attack.

Pleasant Grove also eased to a 34-7 win. West Jordan didn’t score until late in the fourth quarter as the Vikings offense and defense pounded the Jaguars. Carson Rasmussen had three touchdown runs of 36, 33 and 25 yards for the Vikings.

Pleasant Grove has had the stingiest defense in 6A allowing just 56 points in its five games while American Fork isn’t too far behind at 62.

Big Game of the Week No. 1: While northern Utah County fans excitedly await the Skyridge vs. Lehi battle, another great game is brewing before that as Lehi travels to American Fork. Both teams are undefeated.

The tale of the tape is this. American Fork has outscored its opponents 189-62 while Lehi’s margin over its foes stands at 189-83.

Both have one common opponent in Rigby, Idaho. American Fork beat Rigby 50-7 while Lehi’s margin of victory was 45-13. It is arguable that the 2-time returning state champion Lehi with a 24-game winning streak is actually the underdog.

Big Game of the Week No. 2: Orem and Timpview had their share of epic battles over the years. Timpview was a championship game victim in two of four Orem state title runs before turning the tables against the Tigers last year taking out Orem in the 5A semifinals.

This looked like an easy win for Timpview a couple of weeks back, but Orem’s sophomore quarterback Cole Engemann keeps getting better and better.

Because Timpview’s campus is still under construction, the Thunderbirds take to the road for a sixth straight contest.

Big Game of the Week No. 3: Timpanogos is 4-1 but just three points away from being a perfect 5-0. Still, the Timberwolves will be the underdog when they visit 3-2 Provo.

It will be a classic offense vs. defense game as Timpanogos has scored 233 points in its five games while Provo has yielded just 82 with two shutouts on the season.

This particular game will be a barometer for Timpanogos. Provo is battle tested but the Timberwolves have played a much softer schedule in its pre-season tilts.

Extra points: San Juan and Lehi continue to win as both programs put up their 30th and 24th straight consecutive victories respectively. Skyridge has now won 12 straight games, its last loss against Corner Canyon 21-17, a loss it avenged by taking down the Chargers in the 6A championship game, 17-7 … Four Utah County teams remain undefeated in American Fork, Lehi, Pleasant Grove and Skyridge … While Beaver and Duchesne have dominated small-school football over the last two decades, if not longer in Beaver’s case, Enterprise (5-0) is the team to beat. The Wolves beat Duchesne 34-28 and now will square off with Beaver, who was by the way, shut out by Duchesne 20-0 … Two storied programs in Juan Diego and Skyline are a combined 0-9. As far as Skyline goes, the Eagles are staring at their worst season since 1981 when they went 1-8. Skyline has won 13 state titles in its 61-year school history while Juan Diego has won eight state titles since it opened in 1999. While Juan Diego will likely win some games as it turns to its 2A league schedule, things look bleak for Skyline in 5A Region 5 … 4A football certainly has some good teams in the likes of Crimson Cliffs, Green Canyon, Mountain Crest, Provo, Ridgeline, Sky View, and Stansbury, but the classification has some really bad teams as well. Region 10 is particularly awful. Cottonwood, Hillcrest, Jordan, Murray and Tooele are a combined 3-22 with two of those wins coming when the teams played each other. Cedar, Dixie and Hurricane out of Region 9 are all 1-4. Mountain View from Utah County is also 1-4 as is fellow Region 8 program Uintah … Taking out the county-vs.-county match-ups, Utah Valley teams were 6-2 in Week 5 and now stand an impressive 32-16 overall.

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