Payson dominates Dinos with withering rushing attack

Last week the Dinos struggled against Manti in the secondary defending the passing game of the Templars; this week Carbon struggled defending the rushing attack of Payson.
In the first quarter alone the Dinos gave up two touchdowns on the ground and fell behind 13-0.
Led by running back Harrison Judd’s two rushing touchdowns in the second quarter, the Lions went up 28-0 on Carbon with six minutes left in the half.
Judd rushed for over 100 yards and three touchdowns in the first half while his quarterback Hank Bowers added a touchdown on the ground as well.
“Their running game hurt us a little bit tonight,” said Carbon Head Coach Joshua Huntsman.
Carbon finally got a break in the game a couple minutes later in the first half when a muffed punt by Payson turned into a fumble recovery by Carbon’s Jaylon Dennis in Payson territory.
Off that fumble recovery the Dinos marched down the field and scored their only touchdown of the game when senior fullback Collin Lewis pounded into the end zone from the one yard line.  
With a big 28-7 lead at halftime, the Lions would grind out the clock running the ball with running backs Braxton Perez and Mike Lowery. Judd only got one carry in the second half and finished the game with 127 yards rushing.
Payson added three points in the third quarter with a 20-yard field goal from Logan Write.
In the beginning of the fourth quarter, Perez found the endzone from 12 yards out for the Lions to put the exclamation point on the victory for Payson.
Perez finished the game with 83 yards on seven carries and as a team the Lions had 281 yards on the ground.
The Dinos improved in the secondary on Friday by a strong defensive showing by their safeties and corners. Carbon only allowed Bowers to finish the game with 74 yards on seven completions, last week Bowers threw for three touchdowns and 201 yards.
After the game, Huntsman said he was happy with his secondary and glad they adjusted well to switching to a 4-3 defense in four days of preparation.
“Our goal was to keep them under 100 yards passing. I thought our guys did a better job at the back end, they were more comfortable with what we were doing this week,” said Huntsman.
On the ground for Carbon, junior running back Ryker Larsen led the team with 50 yards rushing on eight carries.
“They did a good job up front. We had hard time running up the middle,” said Huntsman.
Carbon senior quarterback Noah Jones had a rough outing for the Dinos, finishing the game 3 of 9 with only 12 yards passing.
Friday’s loss puts the Dinos at 0-2 in non-region play this season and extends their losing streak to 29 games.
Carbon is home Friday for another non-region contest against 2A opponent Duchesne, who enters the game 1-1 on the season.
Duchesne is in its first season as a 2A school after dominating the 1A ranks the past decade.