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South Summit remains undefeated with dominant win

South Summit's Parker Grajek 2 carries the ball downfield, avoiding a tackle from an American Leadership Academy defensive player during the first quarter of the game Friday evening.
Tanzi Propst/Park Record

Heading into its fifth game of the season, the South Summit High School football team was expected to face a tough test from then 3-1 American Leadership Academy. The game was pegged as a matchup of potential Region 15 powers, but it turned into a blowout, and quickly.

The Wildcats used two first-quarter touchdowns and five more in the second to jump out to a commanding 49-0 halftime lead. They then put things into cruise control in the second half to put away the Eagles 56-7 on Friday night in front of the South Summit crowd.

Quarterback Nick Beasley led the way for the Wildcats by completing 14-of-22 passes for 277 yards and five touchdowns. Four of those touchdowns were caught by wideout Brandon Dansie, whose six receptions went for 117 yards. Parker Grajek added 101 receiving yards to the South Summit aerial attack, as he and Dansie were Beasley’s favorite targets throughout the night.

“I think that it’s really hard for other teams to prepare for us,” Beasley said after the game. “There’s been multiple games with each of [the receivers] catching multiple touchdowns. … [American Leadership’s] best cornerback was on Parker, which he should be, he’s our best receiver. But that leaves Brandon open and he scores four touchdowns and now he’s the best receiver.”

The connection between Beasley and Dansie was apparent early on in the game with two touchdowns for the pair to go up 14-0 by the end of the first quarter. The second was a high-arching pass from Beasley that Dansie tracked down over his shoulder in the front corner of the end zone from 22 yards out.

Things got out of hand in the second quarter when South Summit scored 35 more points. Dansie found the end zone two more times to record all of his scores by halftime, while Riley Bayless, Keegan Stracher and Beasley all found the zone in the frame, as well.

“The offense did pretty well,” Beasley said. “We distributed the ball to everybody. I think everybody had a catch or a big run, so that was good.”

The third quarter was the only one the Wildcats didn’t put any points on the board. It was also the only time the Eagles did, when Owen Huff broke a tackle and ran it in for the 17-yard score to avoid a shutout.

With the game already well in hand, South Summit tacked on an insurance touchdown from the younger Dansie, Jared, who also registered an interception on defense.

Speaking of defense, the unit performed just as admirably as the offense by holding ALA to just seven points and 121 total yards for the game, including just 24 passing yards.

“It’s nice to know we could’ve won that game scoring 14 points,” Beasley said. “So, it’s nice to know that the defense has the offense’s back.”

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 5-0 on the season, a mark that Beasley admits he will celebrate. But after going 12-0 last season only to fall in the state championship game, the team has the bigger picture in mind.

“We’re going for the state championship this year. That’s the end goal,” Beasley said.

South Summit will return to action this Friday, Sept. 23, when it plays host to Gunnison Valley (1-4). The game is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. in Kamas.


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