The Hurricane Tigers scored touchdowns on their first and third possessions in Saturday’s first-round state playoff game against Grantsville. But the Cowboys dug in defensively and started to move to the ball offensively via the airways to trail only 21-6 at intermission.

After a first half plagued with penalties, Hurricane dominated the third quarter with three touchdowns and went on to a 47-14 triumph to end the season for the Cowboys.

Grantsville finished the year with a 4-9 record with two of its victories in 24 minute play-in games. The Cowboys defeated Carbon, Ben Lomond twice and Bear River.

“I would put Hurricane in the top five, but we played the cream of the crop this year and Morgan, Logan and Juan Diego are stronger,” said Grantsville coach Tony Cloward.

The Cowboys played against five of the eight teams in this weekend’s quarterfinals. They faced Delta, Morgan, Hurricane, Logan and Juan Diego.

“Our kids fought super hard against Hurricane and fought super hard all year. I think the impact of playing on Tuesday and the five-hour bus trip hurt us. When you consider we played at Morgan on Friday, the games on Tuesday and again on Saturday. That’s three games in eight days,” Cloward said.

“I think we looked good in the first half against Hurricane, but then I think all that playing got to us and it looked like we were running in mud the second half,” the coach said.

Hurricane went up 14-0 early in the second quarter. Then Grantsville started to find some offensive rhythm with Alex Childs and Mark Kahai running the ball and Gareth Anderson finding receiver Cody Colson for big gains. A nice drive stalled when Grantsville was whistled for offensive pass interference.

“We were hurt with penalties and they were hurt with penalties. I’ve never been a big fan of some of the southern (Utah) officiating. I don’t think several penalties called in the game were justified and it hurt us,” Cloward said.

Two personal foul penalties pushed the Tigers back to the 5 yard line after a punt and the field position helped out the Cowboys.

The Cowboys defense kept the Tigers pinned and on third down, Tyson Hutchins intercepted a pass at the Tigers’ 16 yard line and returned it to the 5 yard line.

Two plays later, Childs crashed over the goal line to trim Hurricane’s lead to 14-6 with 6:08 until intermission.

Grantsville’s fatigue started to set in and the Tigers started to get on track with their running attack. After the Cowboys scored to get back in the game, the Tigers drove 80 yards in four minutes to go up 20-6 at halftime. Austin Gumucio blocked the Hurricane PAT.

Hurricane scored on its first two possessions of the second half on long offensive drives and then intercepted a pass at the Grantsville 22 and returned it for a third third-quarter touchdown and a 40-6 lead.

The Cowboys made an impressive drive toward the end of the third quarter with pass completions to Colson, Hutchins and Benji Cole to reach the Huricane 10 yard line. But an interception in the end zone spoiled the effort.

Grantsville scored its second touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter after Anderson picked off a tipped pass at midfield.

Childs took a pitch and passed to Hutchins for an eight yard gain. Anderson then rifled a nine-yard pass to Colson down to the 24. On a fourth down Childs picked up 13 yards on a run to the Hurricane 3 yard line and then scored two plays later.

The Cowboys were successful on a two-point conversion with a pass to Dax Bulkley to make it 40-14.

Grantsville netted 90 yards rushing with Childs getting 68 yards on 21 carries while Kahai rushed for 33 yards.

The Cowboys were 10 of 26 passing for 152 yards passing with four interceptions.

“We wanted to run the ball, but they came out in a 5-2-2 designed to stop the run so we ended up throwing it a lot,” the coach said.

Gumucio was credited with 16 tackles from his linebacker position and Ryley Boman and Hutchins each had 10 tackles.

The Cowboys were a bit depleted defensively toward the end of the year with linemen Max Bleazard and Taylor Matthews out with injuries.

The Grantsville coach is optimistic for the future. “I thought Austin Butler played well all year long on both sides of the ball and we have him back next year. Kort and Ky Fonger were strong on defense this year.

“We had a lot of strong skill players this year, but we have good skill players returning along with more experience on the line. Tyson Hutchins, Gareth Anderson return along with Kort Fonger and Bridger Boman. We’ll have Cameron Decker, who made a big sack in the Hurricane game, and Ben Tripp. TJ Juvera is a good player along with Eric Selu.

The coach is also optimistic because the Cowboys’ junior varsity team finished strong with a 6-3 record and a 4-1 mark against region opponents.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com