1A football championship: Layton Christian runs wild en route to first state title
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- Layton Christian back Manu Vaitaki, right, scores on a 10-yard touchdown against Kanab’s Waylon White (0) in the 1A football state championship game Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, in St. George.
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- Layton Christian Academy players and coaches pose with the 1A football state championship trophy after defeating Kanab on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, in St. George.
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- Layton Christian’s Isaiah Vea (21) celebrates a special teams tackle of Kanab’s Derek Brown (22) in the 1A football state championship game Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, in St. George.
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- Layton Christian Academy players lift the 1A football state championship trophy after defeating Kanab on Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, in St. George.
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- Layton Christian’s Jessaia Giatras-Moala (2) runs in for a touchdown against Kanab during the 1A football state championship game Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, in St. George.
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- Layton Christian’s Manu Vaitaki (1) celebrates after his touchdown run against Kanab in the 1A football state championship game Friday, Nov. 11, 2022, in St. George.
ST. GEORGE — Layton Christian Academy left no doubt as to who was the top team in 1A football Friday morning, rushing for 335 yards in a dominant, 55-19 win over Kanab to claim the school’s first state title in the sport.
The margin of victory for the Eagles is the largest in the last 20 years of the 1A state championship game.
“Everything was working,” LCA head coach Ray Stowers said. “All the guys up front, like I always say, it starts with them. Obviously, that’s what we start everything with. They set the tone up front offensively running the ball and it opened up the pass game … Second half, it was enough to get the job done.”
Defensively, the Eagles held Kanab to just 63 yards of total offense and four first downs in the first half, while Jessaia Giatras-Moala had 150 yards and a touchdown by himself in the game’s first 24 minutes.
After not scoring on its first possession of the morning, LCA (10-3) found the end zone on every possession for the rest of the game.
Giatras-Moala kicked off the scoring late in the first quarter on a 5-yard score.
Manu Vaitaki added touchdown runs of 10 and 2 yards before a pair of Malik Johnson touchdown receptions from Jobe Ribiero closed out a 34-point outburst that took just 12:59 of gameplay.
“Everyone kind of feels out how the game is going to be,” Giatras-Moala said. “Once we find our groove, it’s straight uphill from there. After we found that, we were good.”
Giatras-Moala finished with 178 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, and two receptions for 34 yards through the air.
Vaitaki added another 92 rushing yards and two touchdowns as the Eagles averaged 8.6 yards per carry behind their physical offensive line.
“Without my offensive line, I couldn’t run how I run,” said Giatras-Maola. “Without them, my running game isn’t anything.”
Jose Ribeiro completed 6 of 10 passes for 134 yards and three scores, throwing a 20-yard touchdown to Frederick Fa in the third quarter.
Kanab (10-3) averaged just 4.5 yards per play and just 2.3 yards per carry.
The LCA defense held Kanab quarterback Griffin Bone to 10 of 21 passing and top target Kason Janes was limited to two catches for 17 yards. Hayden Gubler and Parker Franklin combined for just 38 yards on 14 carries.
The blowout win washes away the memory of an 18-14 loss to Duschene in last year’s state championship game.
“Last year, it was hard,” Giatras-Moala said. “Going that far and taking a big loss. Coming back this year, I felt stronger, our whole team felt better and we came up with that big win.”
In late September, Layton Christian won 28-7 at Kanab with 191 yards from Giatras-Moala and two touchdowns from Ribiero.
Just two seasons ago, LCA finished at 1-9 in Stowers’ first season after taking over towards the end of the year. In his first full season, the Eagles turned the program around, finishing at 9-5.
“Coming in, seeing these kids,” said Stowers. “I just knew — I’m lost for words right now. I just know that good things come when you work hard. That was my plan the whole time. We’re going to put in the work and we’ll see what happens. This group of seniors, they’re special. They’ve been through a lot.”
Since that 1-9 mark, LCA has quickly developed into a 1A power, with a 19-8 record and a pair of state championship game appearances, coming full circle with Friday’s win.