High school football: Bingham blasts Riverton, takes charge in Region 3

RIVERTON — Bingham's early-season struggles gave every other team in Region 3 hope that maybe its league-wide dominance was tapering off. It turns out it was very false hope.

Region 3 continues to be a region of Bingham and then everybody else as the Miners whipped Riverton 48-21 Friday night in what figured to be a much more competitive game.

"I can honestly say that every game that we've played this year there's been improvement with our football team, as much as with our attitude as anything. They're coming together better and better," said Bingham coach Dave Peck. "I'm real happy with where we're at. I think if we keep coming along we have a chance against anybody."

With the win, Bingham improves to 3-0 in region play and 6-2 overall, and is in great shape to win yet another league title with two winnable games remaining.

Following a fairly even first half, Bingham broke the game wide open, capitalizing on two third quarter turnovers by Riverton. For as lopsided as the final score was, Riverton had several fantastic opportunities to make a game of it before self-destructing early in the second half.

The Silver Wolves twice had the ball inside Bingham's 10-yard line in the second quarter but came away empty each time. The first possession ended in a fumble that Bingham's Travis McRae returned 95 yards for a touchdown and the second possession ended in a missed field goal following an 85-yard kickoff return by Matt Maughan down to the four-yard line.

"That was probably the play of the game," said Peck in reference to the fumble. "If they go down and score right there it could be a totally different game."

Instead of tying the score at 7-7 and making things interesting, McRae's touchdown extended the lead to 14-0. A touchdown following Maughan's zig-zagging kickoff return in the final minute of the half could have cut the deficit to one score, but instead Bingham maintained its 20-7 lead at the half.

The Miners extended the lead to 27-7 on an impressive six-play drive to open the second half that L.T. Filiaga capped with a 15-yard touchdown reception from Jake Soffe. It was the third touchdown pass of the game for Bingham's senior quarterback, who connected with Remington Peck and Mike Edmunds in the first half.

Trailing by three scores early in the second half, Riverton had no choice but to air the ball out, but it backfired in a big way. Two of its next four plays ended in interceptions and Bingham took advantage with touchdown runs from Filiaga and Harvey Langi to open up a 41-7 advantage.

"That was huge for us to come down and put a score on the board and then they throw a couple picks," said Peck.

Riverton's Zach Spencer, who had already eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark this season, made the final score much more respectable with touchdown runs of 71 and 64 yards, but any hope for a comeback had long been dashed by Bingham's defense.

The Miners finished the game with 409 yards of total defense, and even though Riverton had its fair share of big offensive plays, Bingham's defense came up with the stops when it needed them most early in the game.

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com

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