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Show The Uintah-Tooele battle Friday, featured one of the biggest crowds ever at a football game in Vernal. The stands on both sides of the field were filled to capacity and fans were lined up close to sidelines and the end zones. Photographers had to avoid stomping on fans as they moved up and down the sidelines and encountered youngsters running in front of their cameras. Uintah fans in the stands, next to the sidelines, end zones and in cars parked outside of the football fields were treated to a heart-throbbing, tern" perature raising ball game between the Uintah Utes and the Tooele Buffaloes. However, Brett Applegate of Tooele sent the Vernal crowd home unhappy as he booted an extra point through the goal post to deliver a 21 to 20 victory to Tooele in overtime. Brett Applegate was the hero in the game for Tooele, but for Uintah he was the villain of the contest. Applegate shot down the Utes' hopes of a triumph in their homecoming game when he booted the ball through the uprights. Tooele's Applegate also suckered in four Uintah defensive men as he backed up, let the Utes almost nail him and then at the last moment delivered a screen pass to Chris Hall for Tooele's second touchdown of the game. Applegate gave the Uintah pass defense fits all night. He connected with Chris Hall on a bomb, which placed Tooele on the six yard line of Uintah, and a few moments later Hall scored Tooele's first touchdown. He delivered a touchdown pass to Chris Hall and fired a two-point conversion aerial to Rodney Dunn. The pass play shocked the Utes once again when an Applegate aerial was pulled in by Greg Dalton to tie the game in overtime at 20-20. When asked to comment on the Uintah loss to Tooele, Curg Belcher, Uintah's head football coach, remarked, "We made some stupid mistakes and we can't expect to win a ball game that way. Our pass defense was poor. I thought we moved the ball well offensively in the first half. The bomb by Brett Applegate to Chris Hall that put them on our six yard line was the turning point of the game." The Utes have a 2-2 record, but there is one item that the Utes are unbeaten at and that is the coin flip. The Uintah Utes won the flip and selected to receive in the Lehi, Union, Green River and Tooele games. Uintah also won the - coin flip; which determined which team grit a shot at scoring first in the overtime over-time with Tooele. The Utes are 5-0 in coin flips. Some fans might wonder why the Utes went for a two-point conversion 'instead of an extra point kick. "We thought we could score on a bootleg by Kay Smuin. However, we never got it started." stated Curg Belcher. Kirby Manwaring has been kicking the extra points for Uintah, but even though he is doing a pretty good job in the department depart-ment he has missed some extra point kick attempts. The Uintah coaches decided their chances at gaining extra points were better by running or passing instead of kicking. Also a successful two-pointer would have forced Tooele to run or pass the ball instead of kicking it. Tooele scored their touchdown and the Utes, who failed on their shot for extra points, had to hope the Buffaloes would miss, but they didn't and the conversion kick gave the game to Tooele. Most starters in the game for Uintah and Tooele played four quarters and the overtime period, but the Utes' Billy Bedell competed in only 2'i quarters of the football game as he was kicked out for unsportsmanlike conduct. "Billy Bedell was kicked out , because the referee saw the last blow of the fight, which was thrown by Bedell," state Belcher. The Tooele fighter remained in the game. Bedell did a pretty good job for the time he was in the game. He regained the ball on a fumble by Tooele on the first paly after a fumble by the Utes. Bedell put the Utes back itno scoring scor-ing territory and a few moments later they gained a touchdown. Uintah's Bedell also blocked an extra point kick by Tooele i the third quarter. The Utes lost the ball game, 21 to 20, which was a sad note, but an even sadder note was an injury to Marty McCarrel. McCarrel separated his shoulder in the game with Lehi and he suffered another shoulder separation in the game with Tooele. "Marty Mc-Carrell Mc-Carrell is probably out for the season," stated Curg Belcher after the game, Friday. McCarrel encountered the injury when he was hit on his blind side by a Tooele defensive man early in the fourth quarter. The ball was fumbled by McCarrel and Tooele nabbed the hall. Tooele went on to score a touchdown touch-down and a two-point conversion, which tied the game at 14-14. McCarrel played a good game while he was in as he delivered the ball air mail to John Merkley and Burke Buckalew for touchdowns. An outstanding defensive play was turned in by Kay Smuin in the final seconds of the first half. Brett Applegate Ap-plegate fired the ball to one of his receivers in the end zone with seven 1 seconds left, hut Kay Smuin reached up and knocked the ball down. Smuin also hafyiumber of fine runs. Dawr. Emery, Clark McClellan and Burke Ruckalew produced a number of outstanding runs in the game, and John Merkley nabbed two passes for touchdowns touch-downs in the one point loss to Tooele, Friday. |