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Pleasant Grove's Wade Christiansen (25) is gang tackled by Maple Mountain during a high school football game on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain's Brooks Ross (right) reaches for a pass while Pleasant Grove's Lincoln Thomas defends in a high school football game on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain's Sawyer Leifson (15) celebrates a touchdown scored by teammate Derek Morehouse in a high school football game against Pleasant Grove on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell DIckson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove quarterback Cannon Jacobson delivers a pass during a high school football game against Maple Mountain on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain's Max Stonebraker (18) carries the ball against Pleasant Grove in a high school football game on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain's Eli Mauga (7) is brought down by Pleasant Grove's Maddox Webb in a high school football game on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Pleasant Grove's XXXX awaits the kickoff of Maple Mountain's Fernando Banuelos in a high school football game on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain's Mason Jensen (11) holds out the ball as he runs around the end in a high school football game on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

Second-year Maple Mountain football coach Kalin Hall said he wants his program to be “the Corner Canyon of South County.”

It’s a lofty goal, for sure: The Class 6A Chargers have won four state titles since 2018 and have sent numerous players to the next level.

The Golden Eagles are probably a few years away from that kind of domination, but their defense is ahead of schedule. Maple Mountain was overwhelming on Friday, forcing a whopping eight turnovers and completely shutting down the Pleasant Grove offense in a 30-7 victory.

Hall and the Golden Eagles are 4-0 for the first time since 2012.

“Yeah, it’s a victory, but we’ve got a lot of stuff to clean up,” Hall said. “Our defense played phenomenal tonight. We got a lot of guys out there flying around and flying to the ball. The only score they got was on the pick six. We gave them that but we put them in some bad spots.”

Derek Morehouse scored twice (one rushing TD, one receiving) and Fernando Banuelos was 3 of 4 kicking field goals for Maple Mountain. But most the stats were piled up by a defense that allowed Pleasant Grove to cross the 50-yard line twice all game.

Farren Hardy had two interceptions for the Golden Eagles and Tiger Hakes, Jaxon Robinson and Nash Ferguson had one pick each. Eli Renz, Easton Kojima and Boston Kojima each recovered a fumble for the Golden Eagles.

“Our physicality and our speed, those are basically our best assets,” Boston Kojima said. “the defensive line pressure helps us a lot with the turnovers, and then the coverage of our safeties and linebackers and corners. All 11 guys doing our job. We’re putting in the work every day.”

Greene’s first-quarter interception set up a Banuelos field goal and the Renz fumble recovery preceded a Morehouse 4-yard run for a 10-0 Maple Mountain lead.

Two personal fouls on the Golden Eagles pushed PG into scoring territory but an interception from Hakes ended that threat. Moments later, Morehouse (7 catches, 118 yards) caught a deep pass from Mason Jensen, sidestepped his defender and sped 49 yards for a 17-0 lead.

Pleasant Grove finally got on the board with 3:15 to play in the first half when Ryder Huntsman stepped in front of a Jensen pass and sprinted 36 yards for a touchdown, trimming the deficit to 17-7.

With 15 seconds left in the half, Jensen teamed up with Brooks Ross on a 36-yard scoring pass and Maple Mountain took a 24-7 lead at the break.

The Golden Eagles were a little sloppy on offense in the second half (hence the “lot of stuff to clean up” comment from Hall) but didn’t have any problem keeping the Vikings from mounting a comeback.

“You’ve got to focus throughout the week,” Hall said. “We noticed we were a little lethargic in practice after we had a travel trip (playing Silverado in Las Vegas) last week. We did some different things last week and the week started out different with a holiday. They’re teenagers, their high school kids, and you just never know. But if we put in all the time and effort into it, you need to be efficient. You need to execute and you need to do the things that you practice day in and day out. How we practiced this week was kind of exactly what you saw as production. But it’s a win. If we turn stuff on, we’ve got a chance to be a pretty good team.”

The two teams combined for 11 turnovers (eight by PG, three by Maple Mountain).

Huntsman had two interceptions for Pleasant Grove (1-3) which will host Riverton next Friday. Maple Mountain (4-0) opens Region 7 play next week at Cedar Valley.