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South Jordan Journal

Bingham football earned a Region 3 title, trip to Rice-Eccles with teamwork that showed up in the stats

Jan 06, 2023 09:33AM ● By Brian Shaw

Eric Jones, hired last January, led the Miners to a Region 3 title and a semifinals trip. (Photo by Pat McDonald)

When Eric Jones was hired last January, he was following a high school football coaching legend in Dave Peck. 

It would have been easy for Jones in his first head coaching position, after having been a defensive coordinator under Fred Fernandes at Roy, to have gone separate ways from his mentor. 

Instead of parting ways with Fernandes, however, Jones invited his mentor to come along for the ride with him at Bingham and be the offensive coordinator and associate head coach. 

To Jones’ surprise Fernandes accepted, and the rest is history. Together, Jones’ play calls on defense along with Fernandes’ expertise on offense made the Miners tough to beat. 

The Region 3 title they shared with Riverton last year was won outright this season by the 10-3 Miners, who made their first trip to Rice-Eccles Stadium in five years, and advanced to the 6A semifinals. 

But none of that could have been accomplished without the help and buy-in from the players themselves. 

Offense 

On the offensive side of the football, the first thing Fernandes did was not mess with the throwing mechanics of senior quarterback Dallen Martinez, who is a two-sport athlete with a primary focus on baseball. 

Fernandes instead enhanced the playbook for the senior, turning Martinez into more of a Lamar Jackson-type for sake of comparison—similar to how Fernandes molded Parker Kingston into a dual-threat QB at Roy. [Kingston is now at BYU.] 

After Fernandes did his darnedest, according to Jones, making Martinez something that he wasn’t, he created a playbook that best suited Martinez’ strengths. 

One, it was apparent at summer camp that the senior could lead, and so he was named a team captain. 

Two, it was apparent to Fernandes through the summer that Martinez was more dangerous as a passer when his feet weren’t set—which is similar to how he threw a baseball while he was on the run. 

Finally, his scrambling ability and athleticism were “off the charts,” according to Jones, and so the two of them went about finding creative ways to include Martinez in just about every play-call. 

Martinez threw for about 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns—spread out to three key receiving threats: senior Maddux Peck, junior Carson Sudbury and senior Havea Fotu. Peck led Bingham in receiving touchdowns with five as well as in receptions [36] and had 549 yards. Sudbury led the Miners in receiving yards with 590 and had four TD receptions while Fotu had 210 and three. 

On the ground, though, was where the Miners chipped away at defenders, often leaving giant holes for opponents to climb out of. The Miners had three players gain more than 700 yards this season, and again it was Sudbury who led the way with 16 rushing TDs on 134 carries for 758 yards. 

Fotu was the top ground-gainer for the Miners, with 849 yards on 126 carries [10 rushing TDs] while Martinez ran for 793 yards and 11 TDs. None of that, however, could have been done without help from Bingham’s massive offensive line, who opened those holes for the backs to run through. 

“First, we had a great O-Line and a phenomenal OL coach,” said Jones. “Second, Coach Fernandes did a great job scheming to our strengths and distributing the ball to our best skill players.” 

Defense 

On defense, the way the Miners got the job done changed from week to week—and drive-by-drive, even. 

“Some weeks took a few drives, a quarter, or even a half to finally adjust the defense in a way that allowed us to make enough stops to give our offense time to strangle the clock and grind teams into submission,” said Jones, who was in charge of creating the game plan for the defense as its coordinator. 

“We didn't have any dominant standouts that we leaned on every week. Instead, I felt like we played well collectively,” added the first-year Bingham head coach. “The kids were very receptive to in-game adjustments. Every week brought a new challenge, a new scheme to defend, and quality coaches who challenged us.” 

If you wanted to look at the defense by the numbers, it was the McBrides who led the way for the Miners, as senior Kaden McBride had 85 tackles from his linebacker spot. Tyson, a junior, had 63 tackles as well as one sack and two interceptions—one of which clinched Bingham’s trip to Rice-Eccles in the 6A quarterfinals at home against Lone Peak. 

Senior Cameron Mamalis closed out his four years with 81 tackles from his spot at DB and had an interception, while senior Cooper Valencia had 79 tackles, 2.5 sacks and one pick. 

The sack-master was senior Ben Latai, who had eight to lead the Miners along with 41 tackles and an interception. Second to Latai on that list was senior Garrison Stewart with four. 

But over 80 players had a hand either directly or indirectly in the Miners’ success on defense and special teams. 

On special teams, junior Kole Francom connected on six field goal tries for Bingham, and split the uprights on 44 attempts.