Spanish Fork football’s defense rises to challenge in win over Salem Hills
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- Spanish Fork junior defensive back Gage Christensen (right) defends a pass during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior Brock Jacobson catches a pass during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior running back Kaden Vest runs the ball up the field during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior running back Kaden Vest tries to avoid a tackle during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior quarterback Mckay Smith throws a pass during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior Brock Jacobson tries to avoid a tackle during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Salem Hills senior Jedi Nelson runs the ball up the field during the Region 8 game at Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior running back Kaden Vest runs the ball up the field during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior running back Kaden Vest runs the ball up the field during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Salem Hills senior Jedi Nelson throws a pass during the Region 8 game at Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork senior Brock Jacobson makes a catch during the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Salem Hills senior Tate Allred runs the ball up the field during the Region 8 game at Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Spanish Fork players prepare to take the field before the Region 8 game against Salem Hills in Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
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- Salem Hills players take the field before the Region 8 game at Spanish Fork on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.
Third down brings high stakes for both the offense and defense in football games. Successful conversions often lead to points, where stops usually allow a defense to get the ball back.
The third down conversion numbers painted a clear picture of what happened in Friday night’s Region 8 rivalry showdown as Spanish Fork hosted Salem Hills.
On the one hand, the Don offense unofficially converted an impressive 10-of-15 third down attempts (67%).
On the other, the Spanish Fork defense held the Skyhawks to just 3-of-12 on third down (25%).
Looking at those numbers, it’s not surprising that the Dons rolled to the impressive 30-2 win over Salem Hills.
“There’s the ball game,” Spanish Fork head coach Dustin Smith said. “We had a lot of third downs where our quarterback really drove the ball in there. He had some super-accurate throws on third down. We shouldn’t have been in that situation and we haven’t been there a lot this year, so I was kind of curious to see how we do. Honestly, our third down conversion hasn’t been great, so that was a win for us.”
As he has been all season, Don senior running back Kaden Vest played a big part in the offensive success, particularly in short-yardage situations. But he emphasized that it was clearly a team effort to do so well on both sides of the ball.
“We’ve struggled a little bit on third down this season, but today was awesome,” Vest said. “In this game, we executed well and did a great job. Our defense also played awesome.”
The Spanish Fork defense kept the Skyhawks from getting much going. Salem Hills only reached the Don red zone once and was stopped on fourth down.
“Our defense probably played the best,” Vest said. “They’ve been lights out lately. We only gave up a safety, that was on the offense.”
Salem Hills’s only points came on the first drive of the second half when a Spanish Fork penalty backed the Dons up deep in their own territory and were forced to punt. The snap sailed high and out of the back of the end zone for the safety.
The home team’s lead was 16-2 at that point and a good return on the ensuing kickoff gave the Skyhawks excellent field position in Spanish Fork territory.
But a holding penalty on the first play pushed Salem Hills back and the Don defense forced a couple of incompletions to end the threat.
From there, Spanish Fork put the game away as it tacked on two more Vest touchdown runs (one of 49 yards and one of two yards) to go with his 23-yard scoring run in the first half to give him three for the game.
Vest, though, said he did the easy part.
“All those touchdowns, it’s not me,” Vest said. “It’s all the line. They’re putting in all the work. We’ve got some just studs on our line, some big dudes, tough dudes. We’re not the biggest in the state, although we’ve got Aaron Dunn, who is one of the biggest. But we have some of the toughest dudes. I’ll go to war with them every night.”
Vest would’ve had four TDs if one hadn’t been called back on a holding penalty. It was one of a number of flags and a couple of turnovers that kept Smith from being completely pleased with the performance.
“We just weren’t as sharp as I would have liked to have been, but Salem is always a really tough team,” Smith said. “Every year is a tough game. It didn’t feel like a 28-point win. But our guys played hard.”
He said that he likes where his squad is at overall but knows there are things that need to improve as they head down the stretch.
“We still need to play more physical and we need to continue to play to the whistle,” Smith said. “We sometimes don’t quite finish plays, and we still arm tackle a little bit, but we’re getting better. That’s the our goal every week. We talked about it in the locker room today that our goal is to get better, win or lose. We obviously want to win, but the goal is to say at the end of the game that we’re better than we were before we started. So far we’re doing that and winning, so it’s been nice.”
Vest said the Dons can’t be satisfied with where they are at if they want to reach their goals.
“We want to make a long run in the playoffs this year, and that starts now,” Vest said. “We’ve got to keep improving each week, but we’re playing good ball.”
Spanish Fork (5-1) next heads on the road for a non-region game at West Field on Sept. 27, while Salem Hills (3-3) hosts Uintah the same evening.
Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
