[2024] Holy War: Utah Triumphs 38-23

[SageBow]

Salt Lake City, UT

Saturday night,  the Utah Utes defeated interstate rival the BYU Cougars in a 38-23 showdown; a victorious senior night for running back Troy Young, free safety JC Gentry, and many others. "Oh man, just so happy for these kids," said Coach SageBow. "It's been tough times, I mean, Troy (Young) and JC (Gentry), both of those guys have started all 4 years and to only have 2-10 seasons back to back to back, and now we're able to get to bowl eligibility, just can't thank those guys enough in helping build this program back from the ground up."

BYU hit first, with quarterback Dick Richards completing a 6 yard TD pass to wide receiver Scott Guyer on the opening drive. Utah hit back with 3:31 left in the first quarter, a 2 yard dive from quarterback Alcides Holden to cap an 80 yard drive. The second half opened with a field goal for BYU, kicker Jim Chance hitting a 21 yarder to take the BYU lead to 10-7. Young then received the kickoff, returned it for 17 yards to the Utah 24, ripped off runs of 30 yards, 4 yards, 23 yards, and capped it with an 8 yard touchdown scamper for one of the most authoritative offensive drives for the Utes this season.  Gentry sacked Richards on the next drive to force a punt, one that the Cougars downed at the Utah 14. From there, Holden engineered a marvelous 13 play, 86 yard drive taking 6 minutes of game time off the clock to take the Utah lead to 21-10, one that would stay through half time.

BYU opened up the scoring in the second half, a 1 yard touchdown pass from Richards to Guyer again in a drive punctuated by an 81 yard catch and run from Cougar's running back Willie Irving. The Cougars 2 point attempt failed as the reverse to Guyer was stopped for no gain. The Utes kicker Ryan Lewis struck from 47 yards out to push the lead to 24-16 with 13:34 left in the 4th quarter. Another big sack on Richards for Ute defensive linemen Clay Machorro and Myles Hungalu led to another punt, and in 6 plays and 80 yards, Holden found the end zone for the 3rd time of the night. The Cougars scrambled to fight back, but Ute cornerback Ryan Robles intercepted Richards, and Holden threw a beautiful 26 yard strike to senior wide receiver Arquimedes Antetokounmpo for the lead to go up 38-16. Richards and Irving would connect for a 12 yard touchdown at the end of the game, but it was too little too late for a Cougar comeback.

"Man I'm just so happy. Feeling true joy," said Holden, who went 8 of 13 passing for 99 yards, 1 TD, and added 25 carries for 177 yards and 3 touchdowns through the ground. "I love these guys in the locker room. All summer long man, we fought. We made a goal that we were gonna see the postseason this year, and even though coach tried to play it down to just get more wins than last year, we all knew he wanted it too. I wanted it for me, coach, and for the guys, Troy, Arq, JC, Clay, Myles, Larry (Hildenberger), I'm missing a lot more but we did it for these seniors."

"Man we came in and we fought for 60 minutes, no one can say otherwise," said Gentry about his 10 tackle, 1.5 TFL, 1.5 Sack performance. "It was all these legends around me that led to this big win. Ryan a huge interception in the 4th when it seemed like they might come back. The guys up front, Clay, Norm, Larry, Myles just keeping Richards uncomfortable, opening holes for me to do some damage. The coaches, trusting in me for a more aggressive role in the defense, putting me in a lot of shallow zones and blitzing me when the time was right and we needed a play. I'll remember senior night for the rest of my life. Thanks to my Mom who was in the crowd, she's been my Day 1."

Bowl Selections will be announced in the near future. Utah will be celebrating in their team facilities, and once the game is finalized, fan ticket allocation news will be coming from team official channels,