First-year North Summit Head Football Coach Dalton Ross was feeling up for the challenge of his team’s rivalry game against South Summit on Friday night.
The Braves took out Enterprise in Ross’ first game at the helm the week prior.
“They’re a good team and we respect them,” Ross said before the game. “They’re high-potency and fast. … We definitely have got to slow down their offense.”
And North Summit did slow down the Wildcats’ offense for a bit, trailing just 22-14 at halftime. South Summit went into the visiting locker rooms and came back out with a vengeance, however, ripping off 23 unanswered points to clinch a 45-14 win.
Four Wildcats’ players found the endzone against the Braves, led by senior Brody Larson, who had two rushing touchdowns, and sophomore Jesse Clegg, who had one rushing and one receiving touchdown. Clegg had another touchdown in South Summit’s week one win over Duchesne, as did sophomore Steele Woodard, who had a rushing touchdown against North Summit.
The dominant win was the Wildcats’ second straight over the Braves, winning 42-13 last season. North Summit took down South Summit 20-0 en route to a 11-1 season in 2024.
“We’ve been 3A and North Summit was 2A, and the rivalry was not necessarily lost but kind of disappeared for a minute,” said Wildcats second-year Head Coach Levi Thompson before the game. “(But with South Summit in 2A and North Summit in 1A for football), now it’s kind of back. … Everybody that grew up here has played in that game, so it’s something that both communities take very seriously.”
Thompson said South Summit and the Kamas community now get to hang their hats on the win for the next year.
Defeating Duchesne on Aug. 15, Thompson is proud of the way his players navigated the short week of preparation. The Braves took down Enterprise on Aug. 14.
“The kids are confident,” Thompson said. “We’re feeling pretty good. … We have a lot of returning starters and guys that got a lot of varsity minutes last year, that helps. We do have to fill some big spots, but we actually have a really tough sophomore group.”
Thompson sees the North Summit game and each week as an opportunity for the Wildcats to gel as a team and improve. They’d like to be competing for a state title again when the final week of the season rolls around in mid-November. South Summit fell in last season’s state title game to San Juan.
The Wildcats have eight state championships to their name in football, the last of which came in 2018 as the fourth in six years. The Braves have seven football state titles, with back-to-back championships won in 2007 and 2008 under former head coach Jerre Holmes, who retired after last season.
“You have to take care of these games at first,” Thompson said about South Summit’s six-game non-region schedule. “Try to knock all those cobwebs out and get moving into region play. … We want to push and at the end of day be right in that championship game, get it done and not come up short like we did last year.”
The Wildcats will hit the road again to face Juab at 7 p.m. this Friday.
North Summit will also hit the road, looking to rebound against Rich at 7 p.m. on Friday.
For more information about South Summit football, including their full schedule, see their MaxPreps page: maxpreps.com/ut/kamas/south-summit-wildcats/football.
For more information about Braves football, see their MaxPreps page: maxpreps.com/ut/coalville/north-summit-braves/football.