Juan Diego captures state football championship

Friday, Nov. 20, 2015

OGDEN — The Juan Diego Catholic High School football team won its sixth state championship title in the school’s 16-year history with a 28-13 win over Morgan High School at Weber State University Nov. 14. 

The Soaring Eagle team had a 12-1 season this year and claimed the Region 11 championship.

“These young men worked hard all year and culminating the season with a state championship is always very rewarding; I am very pleased with their performance and their efforts,” said John Colosimo, head football coach, following the game. “They hung in there and battled to get the win.” 

Colosimo credits the Soaring Eagle defensive effort for the win. “We made some mistakes on offense, but our defense kept [Morgan] out of the end zone,” he said. 

A big play at the end of the first quarter “was the blocked field goal by senior Josh Vasquez that senior Daniel Wilson picked up and ran down the sideline 69 yards for our first touchdown,” said Colosimo. “I think that set the tone and gave us the lead and the momentum.” 

In the second quarter, Juan Diego quarterback senior Alex Hoffman found senior Blake Moore for a “nice drive for a 14-0 lead,” said Colosimo. “I think our defense continued to play well, even though we gave up a touchdown just before halftime.”

As they returned to the field for the second half, the Soaring Eagle team huddled chanting, “I got your back,” and then seemed to establish an offensive rhythm.

“We had two nice long drives, one about 80 yards for a touchdown and another about 90 yards for a touchdown to seal the victory,” said Colosimo.  

The key play was when Alex Hoffman, on the 4th down with 5 to go, made a pass to his brother, sophomore Zach Hoffman, for a first down “that allowed us to keep the ball; they were only down one touchdown at that time,” said Colosimo. “We scored another touchdown and put the score out of reach for them; we got another big interception from Josh Vasquez to end the game.” 

The team has been working four years to get to this point, said Alex Hoffman following the game. “I knew we had to play better overall than when we met [the Trojans] earlier in the season,” he said. “We had to come out more physical and play stronger defensively and on the offensive line; we knew they were going to come out better so we had to run harder. Morgan is a great team; they took us out of what we wanted to do a few times, but we were able, for the most part, to execute.”

The victory was “awesome,” said Juan Diego junior Thomas Beasley. “It was nice to finish the year off as a family.”

“I am proud of John and the team; I was so nervous,” said the coach’s mother Connie Colosimo, adding there was no way she would have missed attending the game.

Following the game, Juan Diego students showed their support and appreciation for the team’s victory by charging the field to hug team members once the championship trophy was presented by Principal Galey Colosimo. 

“This feels really good because it’s been about five years since the last time we won a championship,” said Lauren Popp. 

With this year’s win, the Soaring Eagle now claims four state championship football titles in UHSAA 3A football; they also had two in the 2A division.

“It’s really exciting because this is our senior year,” said Teresa Culley, who attended the game with Popp and other JDCHS classmates.