Mater East defeats Cadence in 4A Southern Region football semifinals

For all practical purposes, Mater East took the field Friday night knowing its regional semifinal football game was little more than a formality.

Every available metric indicated the top-seeded Knights (8-3) would win in a blowout, and that’s exactly what happened. They finished with 278 offensive yards, and got two touchdown receptions from Kevin-Keith Tindimwebwa to roll to a 56-6 home victory over fourth-seeded Cadence (0-10-1) in the 4A Southern Region playoffs.

The win lifted the Knights into the finals, where they will host Sloan Canyon at 6 p.m. Nov. 13.

“We take all our games seriously,” said Mater East coach Tim Hough, whose squad led 42-0 at halftime. “But it was also a good chance to get our young guys in.”

Things didn’t go without a hitch, as Mater East committed 18 of the game’s 28 penalties, many of which extended Cadence drives.

“We jumped offside a lot,” said Hough, who noted that excessive penalties could be a bigger issue next week. “We have to clean that up.”

The Knights, who won the regular-season meeting between the teams 62-0 in October, again wasted no time in taking control. They scored on their second play — a 65-yard run by Marcus Williams — to seize momentum early.

Cadence, which had scored a total of six points in its previous five games, was defenseless and was unable to put positive yardage on the board in the first quarter. The Cougars also had a 2-yard punt and a blocked punt for a Knights TD in the first half.

James Monaghan, Ra’jahn Butler and Portland Yandall shared quarterback duties for Mater East, combining for four TD passes.

Though Cadence finished with negative yardage, the Cougars were able to induce numerous offside penalties and also benefited from multiple personal fouls committed by Mater East. They finally got on the board in the fourth quarter when Mavetrick Turner broke a tackle after catching a Braxton Schiess pass and lumbered into the end zone with 8:58 remaining on the running clock.

Hough said his team will need to be more disciplined in next week’s final.

“Our special teams were good tonight and we tackled really well,” he said. “But you can always get better, especially at communication.”

Jaxon Sharp and S’Marion Coleman also had TD receptions for the Knights, and Idrees Davis and Justin McCullah ran for scores.

Contact Jeff Wollard at [email protected].