Mountain Ridge rallied from a 14-point deficit to beat Skyridge 41-26 on Thursday, Aug. 13, handing the Falcons a jarring loss in their 6A season opener in Herriman.

Skyridge, ranked No. 2 in the preseason coaches poll, led 20-6 with 4:46 left in the first half. Then everything unraveled.

Mountain Ridge outscored the Falcons 28-6 after halftime, capitalizing on two muffed punts caused by bad snaps that gave the Sentinels the ball at the Skyridge 33- and 22-yard lines. Junior running back Bradley Foster, pressed into duty after starter Taniela Kinikini left the first series with an apparent broken collarbone, turned those short fields into touchdowns. His two-yard reception early in the second half tied the game at 20, and his 17-yard burst around the edge with 5:13 remaining put it away.

Foster finished with 216 yards on 29 carries, adding the receiving score for good measure.

"We've always known Bradley Foster is a dude, right?" Mountain Ridge head coach Nick Robins told the Deseret News. "He was a JV last year and he was awesome. He would score all the touchdowns. We knew what we had."

Sentinel quarterback Jaxon Hunt, who threw for 4,061 yards as a junior in 2025, picked apart the Falcon secondary for 269 yards and four touchdowns. His biggest strike came just before halftime: a third-and-12 heave that receiver Xander Thayer caught in stride and took 82 yards untouched, cutting Skyridge's lead to 20-13 at the break.

The game, simulcast on KJZZ and KMYU, was delayed an hour by weather before kickoff.

For Skyridge, junior quarterback Jagger Fountaine showed flashes in his first varsity start, throwing two touchdown passes and rushing for a third. The 6-foot-2, 180-pound signal-caller had the Falcons rolling early, building that 20-6 cushion before the special-teams breakdowns erased it.

Head coach Justin Hemm, now 30-10 in four seasons, warned about the difficulty of the schedule the day before the game. "The schedule this year is going to be tough," Hemm said on Aug. 12, previewing the opener in the Lehi Free Press. "We are playing two great teams from out of state in weeks four and five as well as some really talented teams that will compete for state championships."

Still, it's Week 1. Skyridge went 9-3 last season, reached the 6A semifinals and returns five starters on each side of the ball. The Falcons still figure prominently in a title race opened up by Corner Canyon coach Eric Kjar's departure to Weber State, as we reported Thursday.

Last year, Mountain Ridge lost to Skyridge by 45 points in the opener before winning 10 games and reaching the 6A semifinals. Robins said that early blowout loss ultimately helped his team prepare for the postseason.

Skyridge hosts Orem at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, then welcomes Hun School of Princeton, New Jersey, on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 11 a.m.