LAYTON -- The Layton Lancers headed into halftime of Friday night's game with Viewmont trailing 10-7. Lancer coach Jim Batchelor could tell his team was not playing to its potential. So, with its three-year football odyssey of capturing the Region 1 football championship hanging in the balance, Batchelor had a heart-felt conversation with his team.

"We have been through a lot over these last three years to get in the position to be playing for the Region 1 championship," Batchelor said. "I told the guys we were letting it slip away and that we needed to do the things I knew we were capable of to get this game back.

"There wasn't any yelling. It was just a very direct message of me challenging the team to get the job done."

The Lancers responded to Batchelor's challenge by coming out of the lockerroom and outscoring Viewmont 20-7 in the second half en route to its 37-17 whipping of the Vikings.

"The guys did a great job," Batchelor said. "They understood what they needed to do because up to halftime I felt it was Viewmont's game."

The Vikings opened the scoring on a Tommy Barrett 41-yard field goal in the first quarter.

In the second period, Layton got on the board when Haden Lomax caught a 22-yard pass from quarterback Gavin Green. Then just before halftime, Viking quarterback Chris Larsen tossed a pass to tight end Sam Graham for a 19 yard score.

The Lancers exploded in the third quarter for 20 points. Green scored on a 20 yard scamper to give the Lancers the lead for good. Chad Wilson threw his first touchdown on a half back option to Lomax. Wilson's plunge from one yard out gave Layton a 27-10 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Brock Parkenhurst's 26-yard field goal gave the Lancers 30 points before Viewmont struck back on a 39-yard score from Larsen to Chad Randall. Any hope for a late game comeback was ended when Wilson caught a pass from Green and broke several tackles en route to the end zone.

"It's not like we were playing poorly," said Viewmont coach Robbie Gunter. "Layton is just a great football team with a lot of weapons. They are well coached and they just keep coming at you. I was proud of our guys."

The balanced attack from Layton included Green going nine for 15 for 212 yards and two touchdowns through the air and one on the ground. Wilson threw for one touchdown and caught another, while Lomax had two catches for 92 yards and two scores. Matt Putnam gave Viewmont grief as he had six catches for 132 yards and LaVaughn Jackson carried the ball 18 times for 64 yards, opening other players.

For Viewmont, Chris Larsen threw for 191 yards and two touchdowns.

"It's a nice problem to have with all of these different players and getting everyone involved," Batchelor said.

The win clinched at least a share of the Region 1 championship for the Lancers who are 6-0 (8-1 overall) with Weber 1-5 (2-7 overall) remaining.

"We will not overlook Weber," Batchelor said. "You have to play everyone and we have that game left and it's important to us."

The loss for Viewmont, combined with Northridge's win over Davis, puts the Vikings into third place in Region 1. The Vikings host Northridge on Friday night. A win by Viewmont would vault them into the second place position and almost guarantee the Vikings a home state playoff game. A loss by Viewmont and a win by Davis would drop the Vikings to 4th place in Region.

"This is a tough region," Gunter said. "We have some very good teams coming out of here for the state tournament."

sschulte@davisclipper.com