Utah
Utah Warriors to host Major League Rugby’s west final after holding off Seattle 23-21
HERRIMAN — The ending left more to be desired, but the first-ever home playoff game in Utah Warriors history finished with a burst, a boom, and a celebration unlike anything the eighth-year franchise has experienced on home turf at Zions Bank Stadium.
Jordan Trainor scored a pair of tries and D’Angelo Leuila converted two critical second-half penalty kicks as the Utah Warriors held off the Seattle Seawolves 23-21 in front of more than 4,000 fans.
The host fans left happy Saturday night — if not without some nerves.
“We’ve got the best fans in the comp,” Trainor said. “To have them come out for us and to get a win for them, to put on a show for them, we’re stoke for them. … Having those home fans is like another player out there.”
Lauina Futi scored two tries for Seattle, but it was Trainor’s brace — and a crowd that included everybody’s favorite Uncle Phil, actor Ty Burrell, and Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson — that launched the top-seeded Warriors to a 17-0 halftime advantage.
“We were happy with the first half,” Trainor said. “I think we just stuck to our game plan and our systems, and came away real happy in the second half. … But we knew Seattle was going to stay in it, which they did. We’re just happy to get a win and move on to next week.”
Warriors coach Greg Cooper credited Trainor for sparking the first-half flash — as well as Kyle Brown, the 22-year-old New Zealand center who returned from a nearly two-month injury to start at outside center and spark the offense.
It was Brown’s offload pass that set up Trainor’s first try, and the youngster played a critical role in each of Utah’s three first-half scoring plays that also included Joel Hodgson’s penalty-goal conversions.
“We’re really lucky to have JT; our back three is really solid,” Cooper said. “And it was a tremendous performance from Kyle Brown. We gave him 40 minutes because that’s all we thought we’d get out of him today; and I thought it was an outstanding 40 minutes.”
The Warriors also held up another try to close the first half, which — when considering the final score — proved crucial, both mathematically and in momentum.
After a penalty try to open the second half, Futi dotted it down twice between the 58th and 71st minute to pull the Seawolves within 2 points.
But it was a pair of penalty kicks from Leuila — including one from distance in the 66th minute — as well as an illegal lineout by Seattle in the final minutes of the match that helped Utah advance to next week’s conference championship.
“I thought our defense was outstanding today,” said Cooper, who (somewhat cheekily) admitted his side hasn’t played a complete game yet. “We came under a lot of pressure, but I thought our first-half defense was superb. We didn’t chase rucks, we had chased rucks, and we put ourselves under pressure.
“Some of our attack was outstanding. But we probably left 3-4 tries out there.”
The Warriors will host the winner of Sunday’s match between Houston and Los Angeles next Saturday, June 21, at Zions Bank Stadium.
The winner will advance to face the Eastern Conference champion June 28 at Centreville Bank Stadium in Rhode Island.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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Utah
Zion National Park closes popular trail during ongoing search and rescue operation – KSLNewsRadio
FILE: An entrance to Zion National Park is pictured on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020. The West Rim and Angel’s Landing Trails are temporarily closed in Zion National Park for an ongoing search and rescue operation. (Ravel Call, Deseret News)
(Ravel Call, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — The West Rim and Angel’s Landing Trails are temporarily closed in Zion National Park for an ongoing search and rescue operation.
According to park officials, an incident occurred on the Angels Landing trail at approximately 2 p.m. on Friday, April 17.
At the time of publication, emergency services and search and rescue officials were on the scene.
Views along the Angel’s Landing Trail, Zion National Park. (KSL)
No further information was available.
Other reading: Supreme Court, Justice Hagen respond to state investigation into misconduct allegations
This story is developing and may be updated.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Happy Friday, Utah! Things will be a bit calmer in the north today, although lake effect snow could bring a few light morning showers to parts of the Salt Lake Valley and over the Oquirrh Mountains.
We may see snow showers hold on to the Northern Mountains as well, but the vast majority of the snow is behind us. Clouds will clear as we approach the afternoon with partly cloudy to mostly sunny skies on deck for most of the day.
While the snow is tapering off, the cold airmass is still around. Daytime highs will run 10-15 degrees below seasonal norms, only topping out in the mid to upper 40s for most of the state, and upper 50s to mid 60s for the warmer spots.
Breezy conditions are expected in southern and eastern Utah, but they’ll calm down throughout the day. Lower Washington County may wake up to gusty northerly winds, especially near the mouths of north-south oriented canyons where gusts are climbing to 50 mph. As a result, a Wind Advisory is in effect for this area until 9 am.
It’ll be another cold overnight with temperatures dropping below freezing, so don’t turn on your sprinklers or bring you plants back outside just yet. Freeze Warnings are in effect for most Utah valleys from the Wasatch Front to Cedar City and through much of Eastern Utah.
Temperatures will fall to the teens and 20s, posing a threat to sensitive vegetation and outdoor plumbing. The Freeze Warning is in effect from 8 pm Thursday until 12 pm Friday for most of the West Desert, the Wasatch Front, Castle Country, the Western Uinta Basin, Sanpete and Sevier Valleys, and Canyonlands.
The Freeze Warning goes back into effect at the same time Friday night into Saturday morning.
Saturday will kick off with freezing temperatures, but the warming trend begins. By Saturday afternoon temperatures will be closer to normal, reaching the upper 50s to low 60s for most valleys, and mid 60s to low 70s for the typical hot spots.
By Sunday temperatures will climb another 10-15 degrees, topping out in the low 70s for most, and 80s for St. George. The warm dry weather sticks around to kick off the workweek and temperatures continue climbing through Tuesday when the Wasatch Front could be flirting with 80s. We could see a change come midweek.
We’ll keep you posted on the latest developments in our 4Warn Weather forecast both on-air and online, we are Good4Utah!
- Lake effect possible for some
- Clearing out
- Still cold
- Freeze alerts in effect
- Hard late season freezes in valleys
- Warms up and clear for the weekend
- 10-15 degrees above average by Sunday/Monday
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