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Show Braves beat Mustangs, head for finals By TOM HARALDSEN SALT LAKE CITY--In its long and storied history of athletic success. Bountiful High has won but one state football championship, the 3 A tide in 1979. That could all change this Friday night The unbeaten 12-0 Braves will meet Bear River, the state's second-ranked second-ranked 3A team and a school that has never won the state crown, in the 3A finals Friday at 6 p.m. at Rice Stadium. Bountiful qualified for the showdown by earning a hard-fought 17-14 win over determined Mountain Moun-tain Crest Saturday evening at Rice. by Ryan Pond at the 4:16 mark of the first quarter. It would be the Mustangs' only lead of the game. Bountiful started at its 34 after Roderick returned the kickoff 30 yards. On third-and-nine, Lindsey threw to Roderick for 24 yards to the Mustang 41. The running game remained stalled, so facing another third-and-Iong situation, Lindsey nailed Roderick again for a 21 yard pass to the 20. On first down, he again tossed to Roderick in the right comer of the endzone for a score. Jason Haslam's PAT made it 7-all. Now it was the Braves' turn to hold on defense, which they did. Bountiful began its next drive at midfield, and Lindsey promptly Braves took over at their 31 yard line. Lindsey was sacked for a six-yard six-yard loss on first down, but threw to Godfrey over the middle on second down, Godfrey racing 48 yards to the Mustang 27. After another sack, Lindsey hit Godfrey again for 23 yards to the 13. On third down, he scrambled left and threw toward the endzone, but the aerial was picked off by Mountain Crest's Robert Thomas, and the half ended 10-7. The Braves defense set up another an-other scoring opportunity early in the third quarter. On a third-and-13 situation, Larsen was in the process of being tackled by Bountiful's Adam Moon and Robinson when he I !m v f. hmltCc , mydr si( ' ' The Mustangs entered the contest coming off a huge upset of Springville the previous week, and boasting the state's largest-sized offensive and defensive lines. It became evident early that this game would be decided in the trenches. . . . I W i 4 I I ' I If the Braves had to select a most valuable player for Saturday night's rough and tumble battle with Mountain Crest, it would have to be Aaron Roderick, 4, upended here after one of his amazing amaz-ing catches that kept a number of Bountiful drives alive. I - V. 1 lit f rJ I i f j .,. I v " ..... - o legal procedure penalty and two sacks of Lindsey by Thomas forced Haslam into a 36-yard field goal attempt at-tempt which was blocked. The Mustangs, however, continued con-tinued to have trouble moving offensively, and Bountiful took over following a punt at its 42. A facemask penalty moved the ball into Mountain Crest territory, and Lindsey completed a 31 -yard pass to Roderick at the five. Two plays later, Jones broke through for a score, and Bountiful led 17-7 with 52 seconds left in the third. Each team failed to move the ball on their next two possessions, and Mountain Crest took over at its 25 with about eight minutes left. The Mustangs moved quickly, as Larsen threw 19 yards to huge tight end Jared Jensen. On first down, Larsen rolled right, got away from three would-be tacklers and sailed a 38-yard 38-yard completion to Thomas at the Bountiful 18. It appeared that a Bountiful player was clipped in the process, but no call was made. The drive ended when Larsen hit Thomas again for a five-yard TD with 6:05 to go. Bountiful picked up one first down on its next drive, but had to punt back to Mountain Crest with just over four minutes left. The Mustangs started at their 25, but on first down, Kory Andreason sacked Larsen at the 13. On second down, a number of Braves lassoed him again at the six, and a third-down pass fell incomplete. Mountain Crest punted the ball away to the Bountiful 49. Now it was a matter of running out the clock. On first down, Jones picked up three yards, then was stopped for no gain on second down. Facing a third-and-seven, Lindsey bootlegged to the right and dove ahead for a 10-yard gain that clinched the win. "They (Mountain Crest) are as physical as anyone we've played this year," stated Bountiful Coach Larry Wall, who will be going to lus first state final as a head coach after playing in one and serving as an assistant coach in two others. 4 'Our players really came together when they needed to and we got the job done. This was a big win for us." Lindsey completed 11 of 19 passes for 240 yards, despite being sacked four times. Godfrey caught three for 96 yards, Roderick seven for 137 yards, and Matt Stark one for seven yards. Jones gained 50 yards on 18 carries to lead the rushing attack. Defensively, Bountiful sacked Larsen four times as well, and forced forc-ed eight Mountain Crest punts. Bountiful outgained the Mustangs 275-227 in total offense. ' ", So now, it's the Bears from Tremonton that stand as the only obstacle to a perfect season for Bountiful, the siate's only undefeated football team at any level. Friday's game is slated to be televised live on KXIV-TV (Channel 14), but the real excitement excite-ment should be at Rice Stadium, when the best to 3A teams in the state will finally decide the issue once and for all. Bountiful quarterback Austin Lindsey had a lot to smile about after leading his fellow Braves to a 17-14 win over the Mustangs Saturday. For its part. Bountiful was happy to have senior Austin Lindsey back at quarterback after illness sidelined him a week earlier. And it was Lindsey's arm and the receiving hands of Aaron Roderick that eventually even-tually proved the difference in this one. The Mustangs started first on offense, moving to the Bountiful 46 before Bart Robinson made a great shoestring tackle to drop quarterback quarter-back Ray Larsen and stop the drive. The ensuing punt rolled dead at Bountiful's 15, but the Braves could not break through for a first down and punted as well. Mountain Crest drew first blood on a 62-yard, eight-play drive that culminated with a one-yard plunge Bountiful's outstanding tight end Chris Godfrey raises his arms in victory as he watches the last seconds tick off the clock signifying signi-fying that the Braves' perfect season was still in tact. attempted a sidearm pass in the flat. Jason Vickery intercepted and returned re-turned the pass 10 yards to the Mustang 22. Roderick hauled in a first-down pass at the five, but an il- threw 23 yards to Chris Godfrey on first down to the Mustang 27. With the passing game working. Bountiful Boun-tiful began to find success on the ground, as Chris Jones rambled for eight yards to the 19. The drive stalled, but Haslam's 37-yard field goal attempt was perfect, and Bountiful Boun-tiful led 10-7 with 10:05 in the half. Just before intermission, the f V'i. r v."$r - The self-titled Bountiful Coneheads rushed onto the field after the Braves' heart-stopping win. |