Locked in a tight defensive battle throughout, the Carbon Dinos suffered an 11-0 loss to the Duchesne Eagles Thursday evening on the road in the second game of the season.
Trailing 7-0 at the end of the first half, the Dinos failed to produce a touchdown ending drive despite several promising moments. Two second half safeties sealed the deal for Duchesne as they improved to 3-0, while Carbon slipped to 1-2.
Fresh off of a forfeit victory, turned bye week, the Carbon defense caused the speed heavy Duchesne offense to stay off balance throughout the entertaining tilt. Allowing one first quarter touchdown, Carbon’s defense produced three quarters of scoreless football.
“Our defense stepped and decided that they wanted to play football,” said head coach Josh Huntsman following the contest. “I was super happy with what we did. Don’t take the loss, take what we learned. And what we learned tonight was so valuable.”
Duchesne’s lone offensive score came on a fourth-and-goal heave from the 30-yard-line. Junior quarterback Cameron Brady lofted a pass to the corner of the end zone, finding senior Gavin Davis who climbed a ladder to snag the score.
Led by senior quarterback Jaylon Dennis, Carbon entered the red zone late in the first half. Faced with a fourth-and-four, Dennis gathered enough yardage to extend the drive. A holding penalty nullified the first down, forcing Carbon into a fourth-and-14 and an eventual turnover on downs.
“Penalties will kill you. When you get a penalty the way we did on a fourth down it will hurt,” said Huntsman when talking about the offensive struggles. “I thought our kids fought and they battled. They did everything we could to win that football game.”
The Dinos showed drastic improvements in all three aspects of the game. After falling 38-6 to American Leadership Academy, effort and efficiency gave the team an opportunity to steal a road win.
“You just watched a team grow up. You just watched a team learn how to take defeat and turn it into something more than a loss,” said Huntsman. “We are super proud of our defense. We are still making adjustments to our offense, but once we make those we are going to be just fine.”
Carbon will return to the field on Friday, Sept. 6 with a road contest against the Judge Memorial Bulldogs. The following week the team will play its first home game of the season against Union.