High school football: 5 games to keep an eye on during Week 6

Region play officially gets underway this week for the entire state, with key region clashes going on across the state. Here’s a look at five intriguing games on tap this week that will go a long way toward shaping region faces.
Before the season started, Northridge was projected to finish sixth in Region 5 while Bountiful was tabbed the region favorite, so their Week 6 clash hardly seemed like a game with region title implications.
It most certainly is now though.
Northridge’s surprising 5-0 start to the season has the Knights sitting in a first-place tie with Roy atop the Region 5 standings with 2-0 records. Bountiful is 1-1 after a surprising loss to Viewmont in Week 3.
Northridge then turned around and beat Viewmont in Week 4, which sets up a very intriguing game this week. Bountiful rolled past Northridge last season 42-21, which started a downward trend for the Knights.
Heading into Week 6 last year, Northridge owned a 3-2 record with losses to Kearns and Box Elder. Facing the exact same schedule this year, the Knights are 5-0 as they flipped those two losses in convincing fashion.
A year ago though, Northridge went 1-4 after its respectable start to the season. It’s a cautionary tale for this year’s team that the meat of the schedule is still to come, and it starts this week against a hungry and ticked off Bountiful team.
After losing back-to-back games in the final seconds in the previous two weeks, Olympus took care of business in the first three quarters against previously undefeated Brighton last week to ensure it wasn’t in a position for another potential let down.
East, meanwhile, is coming off a 30-14 loss to Valor Christian, Colo., and will be hungry for a bounce-back performance as it heads into the heart of Region 6 play.
East is 0-2 against out-of-state teams this year, but 3-0 against in-state teams, including a region-opening win over Alta two weeks ago.
In its three wins, East’s offense has average 46.3 ppg and will present a very big challenge to an Olympus defense that is feeling extremely confident after last week’s 13-0 shutout win against a Brighton team that was averaging 36.5 ppg heading into the game.
Olympus won last year’s meeting 23-10.
East’s offense figures to be able to move the ball and should score points, the question is which Olympus offense will show up. The team that scored 38 points in Week 4 against West, or the team that only mustered up one touchdown last week against Brighton.
Over the past two decades, the Copper Hills vs. Bingham rivalry has been intense in just about every sport but football. On the gridiron, it’s been completely one-sided.
Bingham leads the all-time series 24-1 and has won 16 straight dating back to Copper Hills’ last win in 2003.
Heading into the Region 2 opener on Friday, on paper this game could go either way.
Last year’s meeting was extremely competitive, with Bingham prevailing 24-14 after scoring 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
This season, Copper Hills owns a 3-2 record heading into the game with its two losses coming to Davis and Syracuse, while Bingham has struggled against a really difficult schedule, losing to Lone Peak, Lehi, Skyridge and Syracuse.
Both teams lost to Syracuse in competitive games, and for Copper Hills it is definitely the one that got away. The Grizzlies led 20-13 with 4:15 left in the third quarter, but was outscored 21-0 the rest of the way.
If Copper Hills finds itself in a similar position against rival Bingham, staying focused in the fourth quarter will be key.
First place is on the line in Region 1 this week in this rivalry that dates back to 1926.
Davis leads the all-time series 38-17-3, but over the past 10 meetings the rivalry has been much more competitive with each team winning five times. Interestingly enough, even though the series has been competitive the past decade, only one of those 10 games has been decided by single digits.
Davis has won the past two meetings by three touchdowns, and it is certainly the favorite to do so again after its outstanding 4-1 start to the season.
Since a 38-14 loss to open the season, Davis has steamrolled Copper Hills, Mountain Ridge, Kearns and Taylorsville. An argument could be made that Davis should’ve been playing tougher competition the past two weeks to prepare for region and the eventual 6A playoffs, but regardless the offense is absolutely clicking outscoring Kearns and Taylorsville by a combined 124-7 the past two weeks.
Davis quarterback Tradon Bessinger has passed for 1,439 yards and 24 TDs this season.
Weber is also 4-1 this season with wins over Westlake, Pleasant Grove, Wasatch and Granger. It held all four opponents under 20 points, and to have any hope at upsetting Davis it will need to duplicate those defensive performances.
Each week the rest of the season there should be a juggernaut Region 3 game to look forward to, and it starts this week with American Fork at Lehi.
Lehi (4-0) is the last unbeaten team remaining in 6A with easy wins thus far against Davis, Desert Hills, Bingham and Herriman.
American Fork (2-3) has played a bit more difficult of schedule, losing to Corner Canyon, Liberty, Nev. and Orem. The Orem game was the most disappointing of them all as American Fork led 20-6 at the half but lost 32-26.
A year ago, American Fork dominated Lehi en route to the 62-28 victory on its way to the Region 3 title. Lehi finished tied for third in region, with both teams eventually advancing to the semifinals.
Lehi has been dominant defensively this season only allowing 11.0 ppg, while the offense is averaging 34.5 ppg. Quarterback Jett Niu host thrown nine touchdown passes this year, seven of which have gone to Mays Madsen.