In the past four seasons leading up to this year, the Murray football team had fallen on some rough times. From 2020 through 2023, Murray won a total of five games. The Spartans exceeded that number this season. 

Murray finished the regular season Oct. 16 with a 58-20 blowout at home over Cottonwood, improving its record to 6-4 on the year. With the win, Murray finished with a 4-2 record in Region 10, good enough for third place. The team also earned a No. 14 seed in the Class 4A state tournament, which began Oct. 25, after our press deadline. 

The Spartans hosted Snow Canyon in the first round. A victory over the No. 19 Snow Canyon team would send Murray to the second round to meet third-seeded Crimson Cliffs on the road Nov. 1 

Coming off a 1-9 season, Murray hired Dalton Dunn as its new coach. It didn’t take Dunn long to make an impact. By game four, a 42-7 rout of Jordan on Sept. 6, the Spartans already had more wins than it had managed the previous year. After falling to Park City the next week, Murray then posted three consecutive convincing wins: 32-13 over Payson on Sept. 20, 45-7 at Hillcrest on Sept. 27 and 51-17 at Tooele on Oct. 4. 

Not since 2019 when the team went 8-4 has Murray seen such success. 

The Spartans had big moments on both sides of the ball. Offensively, several players contributed, but the big start was Sam Pehrson. The senior running back piled up 1,252 yards and 20 touchdowns on 216 carries. Pehrson had five games of at least 130 yards and turned heads with three games of rushing for more than 200 yards. He had 219 yards on the ground against Jordan, 202 at Hillcrest and 204 in the regular-season-ending win over Cottonwood. In the victory over Hillcrest, he scored five touchdowns. Through the regular season, Pehrson was third in the state in rushing touchdowns and 11th in the state (fifth in 4A) in rushing yards. He also caught 18 passes (third on the team) for 220 yards (also third on the team) and a touchdown. 

Quarterback Alexander Bojorquez, a senior completed nearly 60% of his passes and threw for 1,339 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed for 159 yards on 48 carries. His favorite targets were Spencer Bushman and Evan Talbot. Bushman, a senior, led the team with 33 catches, totaling 342 yards and three touchdowns. Talbot, a junior had 30 catches for a team-best 566 yards, an impressive 18.9 yards-per-catch average. He also paced Murray with four receiving touchdowns. Junior Dax Jensen contributed 12 catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns, while senior Connor Whitehead caught 11 balls for 123 yards and a score. 

On defense, senior Joshua Zullo filled the stat sheet with a team-leading 81 tackles. He also added an interception. Junior defensive lineman Tyler Wightman and senior defensive lineman Jackson Ketchoyian led the way with six sacks. Easton Horman and Belal Mucktar had two interceptions apiece. 

When Murray took on Snow Canyon in the state tournament, it was looking for its first postseason victory since defeating Skyline in the Class 5A first round in 2019. λ