BRIGHAM CITY — If Bonneville High football fans’ eyes weren’t on the field Friday night as the Lakers played at Box Elder, they were looking at their phones for updates from the Northridge-Bountiful game, which the Lakers’ Region 5 title hopes still depended on and which was a Bountiful blowout before the end of the first quarter.

Or, fans were looking off in the distance where a series of ominous-looking clouds had Brigham City as their next destination.

Many miles south, Bountiful blew out Northridge 59-14 to wrap up the Region 5 football title outright and dash Bonneville’s region title hopes before the Lakers even scored.

Since the Bountiful-Northridge result was determined pretty early in the evening, attention turned to the weather in Brigham City. The rain started in the first half, coming from the south. Then it took a break and came back with a vengeance in the second half from the west and northwest this time, but lightning and potential delays stayed away.

“We knew it was going to be wet, muddy and rainy, so it’s just get foot to foot here and let’s see who can get more yards without fumbling the ball,” Lakers coach Jantz Afuvai said.

The next item on Afuvai’s agenda is figuring out how to get the copious amounts of brown mud out of Bonneville’s white jerseys after a grinding, muddy, rainy, 20-0 shutout win Friday night at Box Elder (3-6, 2-3 Region 5).

Laundry detergent aside, the Lakers have a bye next week and can rest up before turning their attention to the 5A state playoffs.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner Bonneville High receiver Maximus Diaz breaks the tackle of Box Elder defender Andrew Clifford during a prep football game Friday, Oct. 8, 2021.

Coming in, Bonneville (5-4, 4-1) was ranked No. 16 in the RPI rankings, which would mean a first-round home playoff game and a potential second-round road game at the No. 1 seed.

The Lakers figure to go up a couple spots in the final standings after beating the Bees. Bonneville won’t have a first-round bye in the playoffs, so the team won’t have a two-week layoff before taking the field like it did last year.

On Friday, Bonneville took a 14-0 halftime lead with two touchdowns in a span of 2 minutes, 14 seconds late in the second quarter once the rain and steady south wind died down.

Jordan Jacquez caught a back-shoulder touchdown pass from Koy Dixon from 14 yards out for a 7-0 lead, then Dixon ran in for a short score with 27 seconds left in the half.

“Our O-line, man. They blocked well, ball’s a little wet of course with the rain, but our O-line, man, they’re beasts,” Dixon said. “They got it done, this is them.”

The Bees had a scoring chance on the ensuing drive, benefitting from multiple Bonneville penalties that eventually yielded an untimed down and ultimately, an incompletion.

Of Box Elder’s drives that all ended without points, just the one drive at the end of the first half reached the red zone, something the Lakers’ defense can hang their hat on.

Bonneville made it 20-0 with a TD catch by Avery Eberhard from Dixon, the only big event that happened in an otherwise rainy and windy second half.

“It really limited both offenses on what we could do, and then I think the advantage was for defense just to make sure they could maintain good footing, make sure that we wrap up, just old-school technique and fundamentals,” Afuvai said.

20-0 Lakers pic.twitter.com/SCDBL1b4TB

— Patrick Carr (@patrickcarr_) October 9, 2021

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