Second half surge pushes Carbon to 2-0 with 47-14 win over ALA

By Sun Advocate

Dinos outscore ALA 33-7 with strong offense and defensive performance in second half to grab win
Behind a strong second half surge, the Carbon High Football team improved to 2-0 on the season with a 47-14 road win over American Leadership Academy on Friday evening.
Carbon High’s Garrett Blanc, Jarod Lessar and Dallyn Mower each finished with key touchdowns for the Dinos as they outscored ALA 33-7 in the second half en route to the win.
The Dinos used a rushing attack to compliment their passing attack to help keep the clock running while they controlled the ball.
Carbon High ran the ball 41 times for 200 yards against the ALA defense. Lessar led the Dinos with 16 rushes for 111 yards and Mower, Jacky Byrge, Marcos Castro and K.J. Hopkins combined to rush for 89 yards and three touchdowns.
For the second straight week, Blanc had a receiving touchdown to get the Dinos out to an early 6-0 lead. In the third quarter, he added his second interception return for a touchdown going over 70 yards for the defensive score. He finished with two interceptions in the game as the Dinos took advantage of five ALA turnovers on the night. Blanc finished with a team-high 100 yards on four catches and a touchdown for the Dinos. Oakley Bagley added three catches for 41 yards, Peyton Fausett had one catch for 28 yards and Braxton Jones added another catch for two yards.
Carbon trailed ALA 7-6 into the second quarter before Mower scored on a 3-yard touchdown run followed by Lessar converting on the ensuing two-point conversion to make it 14-7. Carbon never trailed the rest of the game. Lessar finished the game 9-for-15 passing for 171 yards.
With the big lead, Carbon was able to get plenty of playing time for their second line and junior varsity players. Castro also added Carbon’s final touchdown run of the night late in the game to add to the lead.
Carbon High Head Coach Jan Jorgensen said the team came out flat in the first half but credited them with coming out strong in the second half to take control of the game.
“We came out way too flat in the first half,” Jorgensen said in a post game radio interview with KUSA FM100’s Frank Ori. “We challenged the team at halftime and we’re happy with how they responded in the second half.”
Carbon is now 2-0 on the season, marking the first time since 2011 they have won two games in a season. In that season, Carbon started 4-0 before going winless the rest of the season.
The Dinos will now turn their attention to playing vaunted 1A powerhouse Duchesne (1-1 overall) on the road Thursday evening at 7 p.m. Big news going around the Utah High School Football world on Friday evening was that North Summit ended Duchesne’s 48-game winning streak with a 14-12 win in Duchesne. The 48 game streak was the longest in the history of Utah High School Football.
Carbon will look to move to 3-0 for the first time since 2011 when the team opened the season 4-0 for the first time in over five decades. Carbon will have their hands full against a Duchesne team that will be looking to rebound after their difficult loss to North Summit last week. In the game between the two schools last season on Sept. 6, 2013, Duchesne blasted Carbon 35-0 in Price to extend their winning streak to 37 games, which set the then all-time state record across all classes for consecutive wins.