By Andy Griffin, For the Deseret News
Published: Friday, Oct. 22, 2010 12:49 a.m. MDT
CEDAR CITY — The Cedar players were jubilant. The Cedar fans were raucous. But Cedar coach Todd Peacock? He was just stunned.
"I don't know how to explain what just happened," said the Redmen's veteran coach, moments after his team beat up the Hurricane Tigers 44-30. "I tell you, these kids are amazing. They're just a bunch of little guys running around who love to play football."
Quarterback Carson Ludlow had a virtually perfect night, running for 135 yards and passing for four touchdowns. Cedar sprinted out to a 38-7 lead and then held on as the Tigers staged a furious rally.
"I trust Carson completely with the option offense," Peacock said. "And we threw the ball really well tonight. We haven't been doing that lately. When we can throw like that, we're awfully tough."
Early on, it looked like two of the state's top teams would stage a classic game. The previously undefeated Tigers matched an early TD pass from Ludlow to Jon Jones with a McCrae Vaifanua score on a pass from Adam Long.
But that would be one of the few bright moments of the night for the No. 1-ranked Hurricane squad.
Cedar used the brains and athleticism of Ludlow to score 31 straight points. He had two more TD passes in the first half, and Trevin Hansen's 42-yard field goal as time expired in the first half made it 24-7 at the break.
Ludlow found Nick Burns to start the third quarter for a 17-yard TD strike to make it 31-7.
On Hurricane's next drive, Long lobbed a pass to the left side as he was being hit. Burns read the play from his cornerback position, grabbed the floater and sprinted untouched 50 yards to push the lead to 38-7.
"We just had a great week of practice," Burns said. "I think they were surprised at how well we played."
Burns was on the receiving end of two of Ludlow's TD tosses, giving him three scores in the game.
"Me and Carson have been tossing the ball back and forth since we were little kids," Burns said. "He was throwing it well tonight."
The Tigers closed to within 38-22 on a 54-yard TD run by Long and a short TD by Jarom Healy. But Cedar squashed any comeback thoughts by marching 54 yards on 13 plays to push the lead to 44-22. Hurricane added a late score for the final tally.
"It was a great night," Peacock said. "I'm just so proud of these kids. We didn't punt once tonight. The offense was really clicking."
The win gives Cedar a share of the Region 9 title with a 5-1 record (9-1overall). The Redmen will go in as the region's top seed with the win over Hurricane.
Hurricane, 9-1 and 5-1 as well, will be the No. 2 seed.
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