High school football: Duchesne jumps out fast, beats North Summit for 1A semifinal victory
· Yahoo Sports
Duchesne ripped off its 11th straight victory in the 1A semifinals on Friday to advance to next week’s state championship.
It was the type of performance head coach Tom Clark has come to expect from his team. Before the season though, he could’ve never imagined all this success.
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“I’ll be honest with you, with as young as we are, over half our team are sophomores and freshmen, and if you’d have told me August 1st we’d be here, I’d have said you’re crazy,” said Clark.
“But these kids have come together, they’ve worked their tails off, they prepare and I couldn’t be more happy for them cause they deserve it.”
Kyson Despain rushed for 199 yards and three touchdowns and then the Eagles’ defense forced three turnovers as top seed Duchesne jumped out fast against No. 4 North Summit for the 28-12 semifinal victory at Zions Bank Stadium.
Duchesne advances to next Saturday’s championship game at Southern Utah University against the Kanab-Beaver semifinal winner.
With Friday’s big game, Despain has now surpassed eclipsed 1,500 rushing yards on the season and 23 touchdowns.
“It’s been really fun. My line’s been doing a great job, and that’s what really helps me get all the yards I get, and it’s just really been so fun for to run the ball,” said Despain.
Friday’s semifinal was a rematch of the final game of the regular season between these same two teams, a game Duchesne outscored North Summit 35-0 in the second half for the 56-21 victory.
Clark cautioned his players not to think much about that game in the semifinal rematch.
“I was scared to death because of all the teams we got left, they probably got the most speed and athletic ability, and you can see it out there so I knew we had our work cut out for us,” Clark said.
“I told our kids all week, with that that first game, we got to act like that never happened.”
In the rematch, the game unfolded much differently, with Duchesne doing much of its damage early.
Duchesne and North Summit play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne’s Kyson Despain runs in the open against North Summit’s defense as they play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne and North Summit play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne’s Brex Robinson and Blaine Hoopes work to disrupt a two point attempt to North Summit’s Zach Ernst as play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne’s Kyson Despain sheds North Summit’s Talon Stuart on his way into the endzone as they play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne and North Summit play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne’s Brex Robinson is caught by the foot as he runs the ball as they and North Summit play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne’s Tucker Lefler and Ryker Jenkins begin cheering after they defeated North Summit in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News Duchesne’s Brex Robinson eyes an opening as he runs the ball as they and North Summit play in the Semifinals of 1A football at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret NewsDuchesne offense could do no wrong in the first half, scoring on all three drives to build a 21-6 halftime lead.
Kache Reilley opened the scoring midway through the first quarter as he caught a short pass from Brex Robinson and then raced 76 untouched yards for the early 7-0 advantage.
Clark anticipated that North Summit’s defense would stack the box to try to slow Despain early, and the coaching staff had the perfect play call to counter that.
“That first series they were in there pretty tight, and I said, ‘Let’s go with it right here’ and so we snuck the tight end out, they never saw him and it worked just like we worked on it in practice all week,” said Clark.
Despain added short rushing TDs in the second quarter to stretch the lead to 21-0.
After struggling for most of the first half, North Summit finally started to string some first downs together late in the second quarter, ultimately scoring with 1.7 seconds left on a 6-yard TD pass from Tayton Pace to Know Woolstenhulme.
The Braves missed the extra point and trailed 21-6 at the half.
North Summit had no luck stopping Duchesne offense in the first half, but it got back-to-back stops coming out of halftime, the second of which it turned into points.
Pace connected with Kason Richins on a 34-yard TD pass at the 4:19 mark of the third quarter, whittling the deficit to 21-12 after the missed two-point conversion.
North Summit’s defense got another stop, but it was short-lived momentum. Duchesne’s defense got the ball right back with its third interception of the game, and the Eagles capitalized on the short field one play later with Despain darting 11 yards into the end zone with 10:06 remaining to ice the win.
Duchesne is back in the state championship for the first time since 2021, when it beat Layton Christian 18-14 for its fifth state championship in school history.
Getting back there wasn’t been easy, but Clark said there’s been a different vibe this year in his third year as head coach.
“It took a while, to be honest, for everybody to buy in to the change,” Clark said, “and this group has.”