Prep football: Ogden can’t capitalize late in 28-20 loss to Summit Academy
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- Ogden High receiver Jack Thompson heads into the end zone for a receiving touchdown against Summit Academy on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High center Wyatt Wilkinson (56) snaps the ball to quarterback Blake Weston (6) in a game against Summit Academy on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High football players line up during the playing of the national anthem before a game Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High football head coach Terry Larsen, right, calls out to his players during a game against Summit Academy on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High junior Ryan Kirkland, bottom, tackles Summit Academy quarterback Preston MacKowiak (2) for a loss on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High’s defense, right, lines up against Summit Academy’s offense on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High students converse during a break in the action in a football game against Summit Academy on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High’s Keen Crowther (14) takes a handoff from Blake Weston (6) in a game against Summit Academy on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Captains for Ogden High, right, and Summit Academy listen to the referee before the coin toss on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
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- Ogden High football players take the field on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Ogden.
OGDEN — Ogden High gave new head coach Terry Larsen plenty to work with in the upcoming week of practice after the first 2 minutes of the fourth quarter Friday against visiting Summit Academy.
The Tigers had just finished a nearly 6-minute drive sparked by a 44-yard toss from Blake Weston to Nash Bockwoldt. Anderson Curry toted a rush behind Keen Crowther’s blocking across the goal line on fourth-and-1 from the 4, answering a long TD drive from the Bears.
But Weston’s rollout pass on a two-point conversion didn’t clear the initial pursuit, was batted into the air and eventually picked off for an unsuccessful try, keeping Summit Academy in the lead 22-20.
The ensuing kick, however, had the Tigers back in business. Jackson Turner sent the ball to no-man’s land on the left sideline, where Summit Academy’s Kaison Urbahn’s attempt to fall on the kick failed and Ogden’s Trayven Olivieri was next to the ball.
The recovery had Ogden at Summit Academy’s 11. But a false start and two negative plays led to Turner missing a 33-yard field goal with 10 minutes left.
Summit used its connection of Preston MacKowiak to Beckham Meredith to seal the game with a touchdown drive and the visitors left Ogden with a 28-20, nonregion win.
“The change of possession, you’ve got to capitalize on that. We have a chance to get the ball in the red zone, go score again and go up and the first thing we do is false start,” Larsen said. “So, we’ve got to clean that up; we’ve got a lot to clean up.
“But I told the boys, it’s a loss but we’re not failures. It’s just something to build from. We’ll put this game behind us, figure out what we did, learn from our mistakes and move forward.”
Ogden fumbled its second play from scrimmage to open the game but Summit missed a short field goal wildly right on its ensuing possession, marking the first of a few kicking miscues for the Bears.
Then a big screen pass underneath the defense on third-and-long got Ogden its first first down of the game, sparking a drive that ended with the Tigers in the lead. Weston rolled right from the Summit 15 and waited for Jack Thompson to leak left behind the play; Thompson easily handled the throw and walked into the end zone for a 7-0 lead with 3:58 left in the first quarter.
“We can do a better job preparing and see the little things,” Thompson said. “It’s the details like getting beat on deep plays, gotta be in better position; our offense can block a little better, put the ball in a better spot; we can all go make plays and get rid of those little mistakes, and we’ll be good.”
Summit Academy used that 3:58 for a scoring drive capped with running back Liam Larson going over the line from 5 yards out; the Bears missed the PAT and Ogden retained a 7-6 lead with zeroes on the first-quarter clock.
That MacKowiak-to-Meredith connection went over Ogden’s defense to convert a crucial third down that led to a 9-yard TD rush from Aidan Matagi at the 7:14 mark of the second quarter. Eschewing the kicking game, the QB and main receiver played catch on a slant for a two-point conversion and a 14-7 lead.
Ogden answered with a 6-minute drive that saw Crowther go 9 yards to the left and to the pylon, sending the game to halftime tied 14-14.
Summit Academy took the ball to open the third quarter and kept it for 6:14 of play clock, with MacKowiak throwing a TD pass and then hitting Meredith on another two-point slant to put the visitors up 22-14. That set up the sequence where Ogden answered but failed to tie or take advantage of the recovered kickoff.
Summit’s game-ending scoring drive saw MacKowiak find Meredith up the left sideline for a 33-yard connection to set up the same pair on another slant into the paint, this time good for six points. The Bears sent out the kicking team this time, with one point all but ending the game, but the PAT hit the left upright.
That 28-20 lead with 5:18 left was enough, though, when Weston took two big sacks trying to scramble on Ogden’s next possession, resulting in a punt on fourth-and-26. Summit Academy drained the remaining 2:36 for the win.
Thompson said he’s still positive about the season ahead.
“We’ve got a great coaching staff, a great new quarterback, got a bunch of new, young guys coming in and playing their hearts out,” Thompson said. “It’s not the outcome we like, but we all played hard.”
The disappointment of the team’s missed fourth-quarter chances got an additional bitter tinge as Ogden players consoled injured senior safety Harrison Hoskins after the game. Larsen said Hoskins reinjured a foot malady late in the game that he originally suffered in spring’s soccer season.
He hopes the Tigers can welcome Hoskins back later this season as one of his top examples of an inexperienced player who embraced football at Ogden.
“He’s a leader on our defense, a great kid,” Larsen said. “He’s got a great moral character, tough … he just puts his head down and goes to work. We’ll get Harry back at some point and we’ll rally behind him.”
Ogden’s next challenge comes against another 2A opponent in Judge Memorial; the Tigers head to Salt Lake City to face a Judge team that lost 49-0 to Union, a 3A North region colleague of Ogden’s, in its opener.
