Miners football season ends earlier than usual

For the past five seasons, the Bingham High football team has played at Rice Eccles Stadium deep into the state playoffs. This year, the Miners lost 27-20 to Fremont – the team they defeated last year for the state title – on Nov. 4 in the state quarterfinals.

“It definitely feels strange to not be playing at the end,” head coach Dave Peck said. “But, we knew Fremont had a lot of talent and we didn’t play a real clean game so there’s the result.”

Ironically, the two teams that met for the 5A state title Nov. 19 were the only two Utah teams that had defeated Bingham this year – Lone Peak and Fremont.

“Every team out there has gotten better,” Peck said. “We are capable of beating any team on a given day, but we have to be at the top of our game.

During the season, Bingham recorded nine double-digit wins included three shutouts before reaching the state playoffs with a 9-1 record. Its only losses on the year were at the hands of Orange Lutheran (Calif.) 42-7 in the third game of the season and a 45-24 loss to Lone Peak Sept. 29.

In the first game of the state playoffs, Bingham defeated Kearns 38-0 with a dominating performance on both sides of the ball. Against Fremont, the Miners were leading 20-14 going into the fourth quarter but gave up the winning touchdown with under two minutes left in the game.

Senior running back Daniel Palepoi rushed for nearly 1,200 yards on the year while scoring 12 touchdowns and senior quarterback Brady Lail passed for 1,665 yards and 19 TDs. Wide receivers Hayden Weichers and Kalan Cantwell were also credited by Peck for their offensive contributions to the 9-3 squad. Weichers averaged 21 yards a catch for 686 yards this season with nine TDs and Cantwell had 547 yards on 36 receptions and seven TDs.

Defensively, Jared Afalava led the team with 79 tackles, two sacks and three interceptions while Drake Miller recorded 64 tackles, two sacks and two interceptions.

None of Bingham’s 35 seniors are committed to college programs yet and they still have time to decide before the early February signing date.

“This is definitely not like last year when we had nearly 20 kids playing at the next level,” Peck said.

Despite the earlier exit from the playoffs than Bingham is accustomed to, Peck is optimistic about the program he is running and the direction it is headed.

“We’ll be back next year,” he said. “We seem to get everyone’s best shot, but they’re gonna get our best shot next year.”