Sophomore quarterback connects on the winning touchdown pass to lift West Jordan to double-overtime victory
RIVERTON — The last week has been like a roller-coaster ride for the West Jordan football team, and it continued Friday night all through the Jaguars’ 16-10 double-overtime win over the Riverton Silverwolves.
Not long after the Jaguars defeated Hunter last week, they learned they had lost their starting quarterback, Oakley Koop, for the season to an ACL injury.
His replacement was sophomore Ben Anderson, who threw for 198 yards in his first start, including a 14-yard touchdown pass to David Roberts in the second overtime to secure the victory in both team’s Region 3 opener.
“That’s how it goes,” said West Jordan coach Mike Meifu, whose team improved to 4-1 overall. “The guys kept battling. We have gone through our share of adversity this week but they did what they had to win.”
The Jaguars also were helped by a pair of missed field goals by Riverton’s standout kicker, Stockton Lund. The first one, a 33-yarder, narrowly missed going inside the left upright that could have given the Silverwolves the victory in the first extra session. The second kick — a 46-yarder — had the distance but also went wide left and was hampered by a quarterback sack the play before.
Riverton trailed most of the game but rallied to tie the score with 1:06 left. The Silverwolves were helped by a personal-foul penalty on West Jordan that moved the ball from their own 9-yard line to their 34.
Riverton quarterback Connor Coggins, who completed just nine passes all night, had four of them on that drive that culminated with a 1-yard run by Travis Mohney. Lund tied the score with a pressure-filled extra point to set up overtime.
West Jordan took the ball on Riverton’s 25-yard line to start the “Kansas Playoff,” but Jordan Lambert recovered a fumble on the Jaguars’ third play. Filled with momentum, the Silverwolves faced a fourth-and-1 at the Jaguars’ 16 and chose to go with their ace, Lund, to win it all.
The kick looked good and Riverton fans celebrated until the referees gave them the bad news — no good.
The news got worse a few minutes later when West Jordan’s defense, which had kept Riverton in check most of the game, forced two incompletions and then sacked Coggins to force the 46-yard attempt, which also missed.
Filled with newly found excitement, the Jaguars got a first down on two running plays and then Anderson saw Roberts moving toward the goal line and ended the game with an on-target throw.
“You don’t face much more pressure than he (Anderson) had tonight,” Meifu said. “He really grew up.”
Anderson completed 10 of 16 passes and – perhaps just as importantly – had no turnovers.
Bruce Smith grew up in Boise, Idaho, and is a longtime newspaper sports writer. He writes primarily high-school sports articles for the Deseret News.
