No. 3 Arbor View routs No. 5 Las Vegas in 5A football showdown — PHOTOS

Arbor View’s football team appeared it was going be in a back-and-forth battle with Las Vegas High when Jared Halford returned the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown for the Wildcats.

The Aggies made sure the suspense didn’t last too long.

Arbor View ripped off touchdowns on its next three drives, and scored on all eight of its first-half possessions to lift the Aggies, No. 3 in the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Class 5A rankings, to a 57-28 road romp at No. 5 Las Vegas on Friday night.

“It’s a great job by the defensive staff, battling back,” Arbor View coach Sam Norris said. “We licked our wounds after last week (a 56-55 overtime win at Desert Pines), but those guys got after it in practice. Our defensive staff did a good job.”

It was the first defeat for Las Vegas (9-1, 4-1 5A Mountain League). The win for Arbor View (8-2, 5-0) will lock the Aggies into the new four-team Open Division state tournament when the NIAA releases its final HRM rankings at noon Sunday.

Arbor View entered Friday at No. 3 in the NIAA’s 5A rankings. Las Vegas, at No. 6 in the HRM rankings, was looking to throw a wrench into Arbor View’s plans and possibly be a surprise team in the Open Division. Instead, the Wildcats will likely get a high seed for the 5A Southern Region playoffs.

On Friday, Arbor View scored in a number of ways in the first half to take a 50-14 lead at the break. Junior quarterback Thaddeus Thatcher threw four first-half touchdowns, three to Jayden Williams, and three Aggies scored rushing touchdowns in the first half.

“It feels good,” Williams said. “We got into practice every week with a play. … Our offense is very spread out. We got ball players all over the field. There’s not anywhere where we lack and can’t make a play.”

Halford’s opening kickoff score gave a loud Las Vegas home crowd plenty to cheer about as the Wildcats held a 7-0 lead just 20 seconds into the game.

It appeared Arbor View had a kickoff touchdown of its own, but Kamareion Bell’s return was wiped out due to a blindside block. The Aggies didn’t waste any time, scoring a minute later on a 14-yard pass from Thatcher to Williams to even the score.

Arbor View took a 14-7 lead after it got great field position at Las Vegas’ 27-yard line after a bad snap on a punt and the throw from punter Chris Fernandez went incomplete. Three plays later, Nylen Johnson scored on a 9-yard with 8:10 left in the first quarter.

The rout was on.

Thatcher added a 47-yard pass to Kaih Cypher to take a 21-7 lead and the Aggies kept scoring.

A 33-yard Keaul Vinatieri field goal, a 1-yard Bell touchdown run, a 10-yard pass from Thatcher to Williams and an 8-yard run from Noah Easton put the Aggies ahead 43-7 late in the first half.

Las Vegas got on the board before halftime when Tanner Vibabul broke off a 66-yard touchdown run. The Wildcats kept going as Thatcher connected with Williams again on an 18-yard score with 11 seconds left before intermission to give the Aggies a 50-14 lead.

“Offense, we talked about efficiency, like we talk about every week,” Norris said. “Our guys continue to play well and execute what we do and it was just an opportunity that we had to get on top of them, and we continued to press on. I’m proud of our guys for competing versus a very good football team.”

Thatcher, a Utah commit, completed 16 of 20 passes for 307 yards with four touchdowns. Williams, a Sacramento State commit, finished with six catches, 104 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Cypher added 137 receiving yards on five catches.

“We got guys that get notoriety, that scores touchdowns, (but the offensive line) are the heartbeat in the offense,” Norris said. “Those guys have been doing a great job all year long.”

Most of the second half was played under a running clock. Vibabul threw for 125 yards and threw touchdown passes of 63 and 7 yards to Dasean Deayon. Vibabul added 91 rushing yards and Deayon finished with 82 receiving yards.

“It was a big boost,” Williams said of Arbor View’s defense limiting Vibabul. “We were watching film all week. We knew what we had to do to stop them. Our defense did an amazing job doing that.”

Idaho State commit Teddy Johnson had a first-half interception for Arbor View, Aisek Brown forced a fumble in the second quarter and Wyoming commit Tanielu Ma’afala-Barbasa had a tackle for loss and fumble recovery for the Aggies. Brown added a sack in the second half.

“You’re not going to stop a guy like (Vibabul),” Norris said. “That kid is relentless. Watching him on film, he gets after it. It was just a matter of our guys trusting each other and doing their assignment.”

Arbor View reached the 5A Division I state title game last year, the program’s first title game. Now, pending the results of the final HRM rankings, the Aggies will likely face Liberty in an Open Division state semifinal on Nov. 14.

“I do (feel like that we’re peaking at the right time),” Norris said. “That’s what you want in your group. I do really think that these guys are starting to continue to pay attention to the small details. You can see the leaders that’s on this team really making sure they hold guys accountable to do the little things and that’s starting to show up on Friday night more consistently.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X