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Show . . . - - - ' - Braves overcome rain, mud and fierce Wildcat defense i i i - ! By TOM HARALDSEN WOODS CROSS-Neither rain, nor wind, nor a strong Woods Cross defensive effort could stop the Region Six Champion Bountiful Braves from their appointed task Thursday night an unbeaten season. For the first time in school history, as far as anyone can remember, re-member, the Braves wrapped up a 9-0 regular season mark with a 21-3 victory over the Wildcats. Bountiful will now enter this week's inter-region inter-region playoffs as a host team. first down, but a second down pass by quarterback Ryan VanAlfen was picked off by Austin Lindsey, who returned it six yards to the Wildcat 34. With under a minute left in the half, Lindsey hit Chris Godfrey for 1 8 yards to the 16. On the next play, Lindsey threw to Chuck Gillette for the score, and Jason Haslam's PAT gave Bountiful a 7-0 lead with 30 seconds remaining. Woods Cross grabbed some of the momentum right back, however. After returning the kickoff to the 38, Case ran 27 yards on a well-conceived well-conceived draw to the Bountiful 35. Jake Murdock of Bountiful makes a diving catch to help advance ad-vance the Braves in their muddy battle against Woods Cross. I w f iX " I I ? if i z f sX " a i 1 o - X The Braves received the opening kickoff of the second half, starting into the wind at the 20. It was here that the Bountiful crew put together a drive worthy of a league champion. cham-pion. Staying exclusively on the ground, running backs Chris Jones and Murdock ground out an 80-yard, 80-yard, 16-play drive that led to a six ; yard scoring run over right tackle ; by Jones. The only large gainer in ; that drive was a 20-yard scamper by ! Lindsey on third-and-nine after he i had been flushed out of the pocket. Haslam's PAT made it 14-3 with 5:28 to go. . ' . , . . ' The score remained the same at the Wildcat 33, returning it to the 21. After Jones moved to ball to the 16, Murdock rambled in for a score, and Haslam's PAT capped the 21-3 final. Despite the loss, Woods Cross looked much stronger than in the two previous losses to Jordan and Murray. The Spartans were thumped 34-0 by West on Thursday, Thurs-day, setting up this week's rematch between the two schools on Tuesday Tues-day at Granite High. Game time is set for 3 p.m. A win by the Wildcats would then put them into an inter-, region game on Friday pr Saturday against the Regidn Five champion Chris Jones of Bountiful, center, plunges through an army of ; . Wildcat defenders to score a touchdown- after an impressive ' 1 r Brave drive to open the second half. ' r' ' S- ". - f i j t ; - w ' ' I - r I j '- W--- ' '''' ' r , i . , v n i - a while Woods Cross will playoff with Murray early this week, probably prob-ably on Tuesday, to earn the right to advance to a Friday or Saturday inter-region game. The fired-up Wildcats gave Bountiful all it wanted in the opening open-ing half Thursday night, played during dur-ing a steady drizzle with a south wind thrown in. Woods Cross' defensive line handled Bountiful s offensive line quite nicely the first i 24 minutes. In the second half, however, the Braves came to the party and got their running game in gear enroute to the win. Turnovers plagued both teams' opening drives. After receiving the kickoff, Woods Cross moved from its 39 to the Bountiful 24 before a pitchout went haywire. Jake Murdock Mur-dock fell on the loose ball for Bountiful. Boun-tiful. The Braves ensuing drive also bogged down at the Wildcat 17, when a fumble was recovered by Scott Peters. The opening quarter ended scoreless. It appeared the first half might end the same way, as both teams struggled to make anything happen. Woods Cross, aided with the strong wind at its backs, had all the field position of the second quarter, but twice failed on long field goal attempts, at-tempts, one being blocked and the other snuffed by a bad snap. The Wildcats had a final chance with less than two minutes left when they stopped Bountiful on downs at the Woods Cross 21. Kevin Case picked up four yards on PHOTOS BY JOHN W. CANNON It rained almost constantly during Thursday night's matchup between Bountiful and Woods Cross. These Wildcat fans resorted to large plastic sheets to try to stay dry. A personal foul for a late hit out of bounds on Case tacked on 15 more yards, and, with three seconds left, Kyle Lavender booted a 38 yard field goal as time ran out, making the score 7-3 at intermission. r through the next eight minutes, as both teams continued to struggle with the elements. With 7:20 to go in the game, Woods Cross started a drive at its 20, but on third down, Lindsey picked off a deflected pass somewhere in northern Utah. Bountiful will host the Region Five fifth-place team in the first round on either Friday or Saturday. Watch Tuesday's Clipper for more about that contest. |