Three weekends into the football season felt like three months had passed when Lone Peak welcomed Corner Canyon to Highland on Friday. If it weren’t for the warm summer evening, it would have been hard to distinguish the Knights’ 28-21 victory over the Chargers from a November state tournament.

Corner Canyon entered the game as the top team in the state. Last week, they had the biggest regular-season win in Utah high school football history when they defeated nationally ranked IMG Academy out of Florida. That didn’t stop the Knights, though.

“This team believes,” Lone Peak coach Bart Brockbank said of his team after the surprise win. “I thought maybe we had to do something extra to get them excited and stuff, (but) they’re just all business.”

The Knights defense gave the Chargers chances to win all night. One of the best plays came in the final second of the game, when junior defensive lineman Tag Zundel tackled Corner Canyon quarterback Helaman Casuga to give the Knights the win.

The Chargers had slowly but surely moved into Lone Peak territory and had a few good chances in the end zone before Zundel shut things down.

After Zundel’s dismissal, Lone Peak players and students came out en masse to celebrate wildly. Soon, loud music about the championship was blaring from the stadium’s loudspeakers.

Still, Brockbank tried to keep things in perspective, telling his team after the game that this was just one of their goals.

“It’s not about the championship,” the coach said. “Our goal is the championship. It’s great to beat a team like this. They’re our rival. … They’ve had our number, we’ve had their number, so it’s great.

“It’s nice to be able to enjoy it and have it over the weekend, but we have to come back and prepare for the conference. You know, we don’t want a trap.”

Lone Peak started fast, turning the Chargers around on their second play from scrimmage. Moments later, the Knights’ offense found the end zone and kept rolling for the rest of the half.

Lone Peak didn’t punt once in the first half and scored all 28 points before halftime. The Knights took advantage of two consecutive Corner Canyon offside penalties in the red zone to keep their drive going and score the go-ahead touchdown with less than 10 seconds left in the second quarter.

Despite being held off the scoreboard in the second half, Lone Peak’s offense remained effective, keeping an eye on the clock and keeping the ball away from Corner Canyon.

“I was happy with the offense because we moved the ball and took time off the clock,” Brockbank said. “I think we just had to work on finishing. … Other than that, I was really happy with our offense, how we moved. I think we dominated the line of scrimmage offensively.”

Corner Canyon did not give up, however, and scored two touchdowns in each of the last two quarters. The final drive, however, ran out of time and was marred by errors.

The Chargers suffered more than just their first loss in over a year, as veteran wide receiver Jerome Myles also injured his knee on their second offensive play.

Both schools resume play next Friday at 7 p.m. Lone Peak will look to remain undefeated when it travels to Mountain Ridge, while Corner Canyon looks to bounce back at home against Farmington.