Utah News

Over 100 park rangers and community members shared hugs and a warm pasta dinner in Springdale on Thursday evening. For some of Zion National Park’s furloughed park rangers, it was the first time they had seen their colleagues since the federal government shutdown began on Oct. 1.

“We saw a lot of emotion on a lot of people’s faces last night,” said Natalie Britt, the CEO of Zion Forever Project. “The level of gratitude, the way that filled the room, was almost a spiritual experience to me.”

Zion Forever, the national park’s nonprofit partner, quickly threw together the private event, called “Standing with Our Rangers,” as it began hearing about rangers’ financial woes. Nearly two-thirds of national park staff across the country have been furloughed since the federal government shutdown began on Oct. 1, according to the Park Service’s shutdown plan.

“When you start hitting a month into a shutdown, that’s two payrolls,” said Britt. “Folks are starting to feel the impacts.”

In response, Zion Forever and the community surrounding the park have rallied to support the park rangers. Zion Forever organized the event, but numerous local businesses and community groups donated to help make it happen.

Staff at Zion Canyon Brew Pub, a restaurant frequented by park rangers, volunteered to cook the hot meal. A local gas station donated vouchers so rangers could fill up their cars. Zion Animal Lovers offered help with pet care. Sol Foods donated certificates to the grocery store.

The list of donors goes on, including local hotels, the towns of Springdale and Rockville and even individuals who dropped off packs of toilet paper and laundry detergent.

“These businesses exist because Zion is here,” Britt said. “And I think when the park needs the businesses, the businesses always show up here to support the park. It’s a mutually beneficial, wonderful relationship.”

Beyond meeting basic food and household needs, the partners also hoped to foster a sense of community during a challenging time.

“Bringing everybody there to have a big meal together, it was actually really touching and emotional to see these people and the stress and the concern that everybody has,” said Jolene Pace, owner of Zion Canyon Brew Pub.

Many of Zion’s park rangers live in the towns throughout Washington County. “Our kids go to school together. They pray together. They see each other at baseball events or playing pickleball,” Britt said. “So this was really a place of fellowship, and I think a gathering like this was able to boost spirits.”

Britt said Zion Forever Project and community partners plan to continue organizing community gatherings and providing resources to meet rangers’ basic needs.

This includes mental health support. Last year, the nonprofit piloted a wellness fund, which covers counseling for park employees at the Springdale Clinic. The nonprofit announced on Friday that it received additional financial support for this initiative from the Sun-Blaney family, which has set up the Isabel’s Light Employee Wellness Fund in honor of their daughter who loved the park.

Britt thinks interest in mental health resources will only increase as the shutdown weighs on rangers. “This is a very stressful time,” she said. “We’re going into one month, the second longest shutdown in federal history. I think we’re all assuming this will probably go the longest, and we have to be aware that we’re moving very quickly into the holiday season.”

People can donate and leave a note for rangers on Zion Forever’s website. “Rangers have shared with us how wonderful it is to be able to hear from people,” Pace said, “and to be able to get that support.”

Utah State (4-4) (2-2) fell to New Mexico in a 33-14 game that was never even close. New Mexico scored the only touchdown of the 1st quarter, scoring on a 49-yard punt return. The New Mexico offense had a much stronger second quarter, putting up 19 points, including scoring on a 40-yard pass from Jack Layne to Cade Keith. Utah State scored on a 64-yard run by Miles Davis to make the score 26-7 at the half. There were no scores in the third quarter by either team, but Bradaen Pegan began the 4th quarter with a score on a 14-yard pass to make the score 26-14. Around 4 minutes later, with 8 minutes 28 seconds left in the game, Damon Bankston would score on a 41-yard run to put the Aggies away for good for the final score of 33-14.

Bryson Barnes completed 13 of his 23 passes (57%) and threw for 164 yards and a touchdown in addition to an interception. Miles Davis ran for 110 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, most of those yards coming on the 64-yard run in the second quarter. Braden Pegan had five catches for 108 yards and a touchdown. Nobody had any sacks for the Aggies, and Brevin Hamblin had 11 tackles with five solo tackles.

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For New Mexico, quarterback Jack Layne passed for 183 yards and a touchdown, completing 77% of his passes. Running back Damon Bankston rushed for 84 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. Tight end Cade Keith led the Lobos in receiving yards, going for 104 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions.

Statistics Comparison

1st Downs: UNM: 21; USU: 15

3rd-Down Efficiency: USU: 4-10; UNM: 4-12

Total Yards: UNM: 407 yards; USU: 306 yards

Passing Yards: UNM: 183; USU: 164

Rushing Yards: UNM: 224 Yards; USU: 142 yards

Penalties: USU: 7-46; UNM: 7-65

Turnovers: UNM: 0; USU: 1

Time of Possession: UNM: 38:16; USU: 21:44

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Analysis

One of the keys to the game was to stop the New Mexico running game and force turnovers. Utah State could not do either of those things, and New Mexico had a decent amount of success in the run game. When New Mexico has been able to run the ball, they have been able to control the clock and put up strong performances, and that is exactly what happened in this game. Another key to the game was for Bryson Barnes to be consistent and to make connections to Braden Pegan. While Pegan was able to make some plays, Bryson Barnes was not all that consistent. Utah State was able to get more of a run game going, but that wasn’t as effective as it needed to be, either. Without the 64-yard run, Miles Davis only rushed for 46 yards. Utah State also committed seven penalties, which was not helpful in consistency for the offense.

Overall, Utah State was outgained in quite a few statistical categories, the most glaring of which are total yards (101-yard difference), rushing yards (82-yard difference), and time of possession, where New Mexico had almost a 17-minute advantage. That’s at least two offensive possessions. Utah State’s defense found itself on the field a considerable amount, and it just could not answer to the challenge. A consistent Utah State team would have made the score a lot closer and likely would have won this game. Unfortunately for the Aggies, Bryson Barnes just wasn’t efficient enough, and the run defense was not able to slow down New Mexico. I mentioned it in the preview: if Utah State showed up with inconsistency on offense and couldn’t stop the New Mexico running game and force turnovers, this one could turn ugly in some ways. That is exactly what happened to Utah State on the road at New Mexico this past Saturday night.

This was not a good game at all for the Aggies, and if Utah State wants to find a way to make it to bowl eligibility, they must win two of the final four games. That seemed likely to happen just a few weeks ago, but this Utah State team clearly has a lot of questions going about right now that need to be addressed. The Bye Week comes at a perfect time for the Aggies as they get prepared to reevaluate the last few games and find a way to get back into the win column as November, the final month of the regular season, comes closer.

Up next for Utah State is a Bye Week before the Aggies face Nevada in Logan on November 8th.

AI-assisted summary
• The Colorado Buffaloes suffered a significant 53-7 loss to the Utah Utes.
• The article suggests major coaching changes may be needed, particularly for the offensive coordinator.
• Calls are being made to bench quarterback Kaidon Salter for freshman Julian Lewis to prepare for the future.
• Recurring mistakes, such as poor run defense and taking sacks, have plagued the team all season.

With a true-freshman under center for the Utah Utes and two weeks to prepare, the Colorado Buffaloes got dominated in an embarrassing blowout loss.

At halftime, the Utes had a 43-point halftime lead and 398 total yards of offense. Meanwhile, the Colorado Buffaloes had -18 yards. Utah kept the Buffaloes at bay, besides a window dressing touchdown from backup quarterback Ryan Staub.

With four games left in the season, and a record of 3-5, the Buffaloes are staring down what could be their worst season in the Deion Sanders era.

Here are three takeaways from Colorado’s humiliating 53-7 loss to the Utes.

Things went from bad to worse to worst for Utah State in head coach Bronco Mendenhall’s return to New Mexico on Saturday.

The Aggies never got anything significant going and New Mexico owned the Mountain West matchup from the start, which ended in a 33-14 loss for Utah State.

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It was a messy outing in all three phases of the game as the Aggies’ special teams gave up a punt return, a first down on a costly fake-punt and nearly gave up an unforced-safety on a punt return.

The defense also struggled to wrap up on its tackles, and the offense never got any momentum and struggled to block.

“Their execution from beginning to end in all three phases of the game exceeded ours today,” Mendenhall said. “As the head coach, I’m responsible for all phases of our program, the coaching, the execution, and how we play. (There’s) certainly a lot of work to do still in our program.”

New Mexico had no problem taking advantage of Utah State’s lack of discipline and execution. The punt return was only the beginning of misfortune for the Aggies as the Lobos went on to add points via touchdown, safety and field goal all in the first half.

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Utah State trailed 19-0 midway through the second quarter.

Even Lobos starting quarterback Jack Layne, who’s had mixed performances this year with eight interceptions, played well against the Aggies. He completed 17 of his 22 passes and ended with 183 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

He also was not sacked a single time.

Another big issue for the Aggies’ defense in the loss was its inability to wrap up on its tackling. It had multiple opportunities to get sacks or tackles for loss but only ended the game with a single TFL.

On the Lobos’ final touchdown in the fourth quarter, running back Damon Bankston broke multiple tackles and got away for a 41-yard rushing TD.

“I think (Mendenhall) said it fair enough,” Utah State safety Brevin Hamblin said. “Our execution, we got to run our stunts right, our blitzes right, and at the end of the day, when we hit someone, they got to fall backwards instead of fall forwards.”

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Before Bankston scored, Utah State had a chance, as it held New Mexico on third-and-inches to force a punt earlier in the drive.

New Mexico head coach Jason Eck elected to fake the punt, and despite having a good look at getting the turnover on downs, the Aggies failed to execute.

“We had two unblocked players and we didn’t make the tackle,” Mendenhall said. “We had it for minus yardage and their player made a play and ours didn’t, so again, credit New Mexico’s execution.

“Again, we had it defended well. We just didn’t make the play.”

Meanwhile, the Utah State offensive line struggled to protect the pocket and consistently block. The Lobos’ defense had six TFLs and three sacks.

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The run game never quite opened up either. Outside of a 64-yard touchdown run from Miles Davis, it was a struggle. After a career night against San Jose State last week, quarterback Bryson Barnes couldn’t find the same success, largely due to the lack of blocks.

He threw just his third interception of the year in the first quarter.

“It’s been a consistent theme this year,” Mendenhall said of his struggling offensive line. “I love our offensive front. I think they’re working really hard. We’re struggling with holding penalties, we’re struggling with this protection consistently.

“Bryson’s legs have really been helpful to us in getting out of pressure situations, scrambling for first downs, et cetera. New Mexico is really aggressive up front, lots of twists and some really active rushers that they’ve added, and that combination ended up being to where it really was in the way of our throwing execution throughout the day.”

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Penalties also got in the way of the Aggies. They had a few drives that looked promising but were cut short on penalties. Utah State racked up seven penalties on the day.

A drive in the first quarter had Utah State in the red zone, but a holding call pulled it back to the 29 yard line. A play later, Barnes threw the interception.

Then a drive early in the third quarter had scoring hopes until illegal shift and holding penalties were called to bring the Aggies back to their own 30.

Lastly late in the third quarter, on third and 5 approaching field goal distance, Utah State was called for a false start to make it third-and-long.

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“The number of penalties continues to be an issue for our team,” Mendenhall said. “They’re coming in fairly consistent patterns and places. We haven’t yet addressed that. I haven’t yet addressed that effectively enough to get out of the way of that.”

The Aggies have a bye next week, which they desperately need after Saturday’s loss. Utah State will return at home against Nevada on Nov. 8.

The Aggies need to win two of their remaining four games to earn bowl eligibility.

The quiet offensive start the Utah Mammoth had certainly feels like ages ago, doesn’t it?

With its latest 6-2 win over the Minnesota Wild, Utah has now extended its franchise-record win-streak to six games, with its last three coming against playoff teams.

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Against the Wild, it was another high-flying start for Logan Cooley, who opened the scoring for the Mammoth with a remarkable backhanded goal, that got Utah Mammoth’s offense started.

“I didn’t even see the puck really,” said Cooley. “It kind of just popped up and turned kick. Just trying to whack it and get it on net, didn’t exactly know where it was going, but was lucky it went in.”

Not only did Cooley locate the puck midair and bat it down, but he also managed to slip it past goalie Filip Gustavsson, who was hugging the left post.

Even after recording a natural hat trick in Utah’s 7-4 win over the Blues, Cooley still found a new way to impress, scoring this goal just 56 seconds into the game — tied for the second-fastest in Mammoth history.

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But it didn’t stop there for Cooley.

He scored again on Utah’s only power play at the 3:29 mark of the first, battling for position in front of the net once more.

For both of Cooley’s goals to come net front shows tremendous growth and speaks to the threat he’s becoming. Physicality isn’t going to deter Cooley from shooting — he’s embracing it.

Add in a deflected goal from Nick Schmaltz just 89 seconds later, and the Mammoth were already up 3-0 on the Wild. Not only was scoring three goals in 4:58 a huge advantage for Utah, it marked the fastest start to a period in franchise history.

But even with Utah winning 6-2 in what seemed like a blowout, it still took an incredible performance from Karel Vejmelka to keep the Mammoth in front.

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Stopping 33 of 35 shots against Minnesota, Vejmelka was busy all game. In fact, he was so busy that when John Marino scored Utah’s sixth goal in the closing seconds, Vejmelka dropped to one knee.

It was certainly deserved — after all, it was arguably his best performance of the season.

“It was rock solid at the end. It was a shooting gallery,” said coach André Tourigny. “He was really good but he had a really good game all game long. He made key saves at key moments. He was really good.”

And with Minnesota creeping back with two goals in the second, the Mammoth needed every one of those saves to keep the Wild from completing the comeback. If not for Vejmelka, JJ Peterka’s clutch goal in the third wouldn’t have sealed the win for Utah.

The number of shots Vejmelka stopped was certainly impressive — it was the highest total he’s faced this season. But what stood out even more was the quality of looks the Wild generated on their five power plays.

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Minnesota entered the game with a league-leading 10 power-play goals (now 11) and the fifth-best man-advantage percentage at 31.3. Giving that team five opportunities was hardly an ideal situation.

Though Wild forward Marcus Johansson scored on a power play to cut the lead to 3-2 in the second, Vejmelka helped kill off the other four and never allowed Minnesota to tie the game.

At times, Vejmelka faced an onslaught of shots at even strength, too, with the Wild firing in rapid bursts of two or three at a time. Despite several Grade-A chances, Vejmelka slid, stretched and gloved nearly every puck that came his way.

Now 6-1 on the year — the best mark of any goalie this season — Vejmelka is showing exactly why the Mammoth gave him a contract extension last year.

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After starting the season 1-2 and scoring only five total goals, the Utah Mammoth have completely turned their offense around, netting a whopping 29 goals in their last six games.

With their win over Minnesota, Utah has not only gone 2-0 to start a four-game road trip, but has impressively piled up 13 goals along the way. Cooley alone has accounted for five of those.

With Schmaltz adding two of his own in this game, he now ranks second in the NHL in points with 15 — trailing only Golden Knights forward Jack Eichel.

Simply put, Utah can’t be ignored, and it’s likely only going to get better with JJ Peterka growing more comfortable playing alongside Cooley and Dylan Guenther, which is dangerous considering the talent Peterka showed on his goal in the third.

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And now, Utah’s defensemen are finally starting to score, with three different blueliners finding the net over the last three games. For context, Utah didn’t have a defenseman score in its first six games.

While a quick turnaround against Connor Hellebuyck and the Winnipeg Jets this Sunday will surely test this offense, Utah no longer looks like a team still developing — it looks like one ready to claim a playoff spot.

Plus, if Utah can win the second game of its back-to-back against the Jets, it will remain first overall in the central division.

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