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Show Braves crowned 3A champs WWHlBWfl''''"w'vy ) y....- .... , --- r tft' Mil' ''tj&JKr The ecstasy of victory... VICTORY! Bountiful's Jake Murdock (40) and Adam Moon (73) joined in the post-game celebration celebra-tion as the Braves defeated Bear River 41 -28 to win the state 3A football championship Friday night at Rice Stadium. Clipper photo by Brett Hart. BHS takes first gridiron title since 1979 By TOM HARALDSEN SALT LAKE CITYOf all things meant to be, this was one. Bountiful High captured the 3A state football championship Friday night, and the Braves did it convincingly. convinc-ingly. Bountiful defeated Bear River 41-28 to finish 13-0 on the year, the state's only undefeated football team of any kind and the school's first perfect season ever. Long before the celebration on the floor of Rice Stadium started, however, this game was in the bag. Never mind that Bear River scored three touchdowns in the final nine minutes, or that quarterback Shawn Fuhriman finished with 393 yards passing. This game was no contest, almost from the start. The tone for the final was set early, ear-ly, on the game's third play. Bountiful Boun-tiful won the toss but deferred its . choice until the second half, and the Bears chose to receive. Bear River decided to come out passing, but on the game's third offensive play, Fuhriman was intercepted by Aaron Roderick, who returned the pick 21 yards to the Bears' nine. Chris Jones rushed for three yards, and Jake Murdock scored from the six on second down. Jason Haslam's PAT made it 7-0 less than two minutes into the game. To its credit, Bear River came right back. Starting at the 20, the Bears marched 80 yards in just six . plays. Fuhriman' s biggest completion comple-tion in the drive was a 40 yard toss to Ryan Goodliffe. Halfback Brian Theurer scored from the three, and on the conversion attempt, Bear River lined up away from the ball before it was snapped to Fuhriman, who threw to Ryan Merritt for two points. But it was to be the Bears' only lead of the game, and it was shortlived. short-lived. Bountiful's next drive started at its nine. Austin Lindsey kept for seven yards and threw to Roderick for eight more. Jones picked up 4, Murdock galloped for 14, Travis Acord ran for seven and Roderick swept for nine yards to the Bear River 42. Lindsey then found Chris Godfrey God-frey over the middle for 15. The drive stalled, but Has lam drilled a 45 -yard field goal that could have been good for a 55-yarder, and Bountiful regained the lead at 10-8 with 5:02 left. The Braves were to score again before the quarter ended after Brandon Bran-don Wilcox caused Theurer to fum ble a pass reception on first down, and teammate Chuck Gillette recovered at the Bears' 18. Jones scored from the two, and Haslam made it 17-8 with 3:10 still left in the first period. Bear River's next drive moved the ball to the Bountiful 22, but the Braves' defense held and took over on downs. Starting at the 26, Bountiful Boun-tiful put together a 74-yard, 1 1 -play drive, highlighted by a 32-yard run by Jones. He scored from the one, and Haslam's kick increased the lead to 24-8 with 4:08 left in the half. Perhaps the key moments of the game were about to follow. After Bear River was held on downs and punted away to Bountiful, the Braves began from their 48 with 1:32 left in the half. Offensive coordinator John Edwards Ed-wards called a classic drive, as Murdock gained 10 yards on a draw, Lindsey hit Godfrey for 14 yards and a timeout at the Bear River 28, Roderick swept for a couple cou-ple of yards and stopped the clock by going out of bounds, Murdock picked up another 12 yards to the 14, and Lindsey hit Matt Stark on a quick out pattern at the 12. A six-yard six-yard completion to Roderick, a five yard gain by Murdock to the one, and a plunge by Jones gave Bountiful Boun-tiful a 31-8 lead with 32 seconds left in the half. One minute, 52 yards, seven points. The fat lady sang, and television viewers in Tremonton began switching channels as if "Cop Rock" was on. If the Braves faced any challenge in the second half, it was complacency. com-placency. They didn't let down until un-til the final quarter, drawing first blood by starting the third period with a 73-yard scoring drive. Haslam's 32-yard Field goal made it 34-8 with 7:35 left in the quarter. It was going to get even worse. Bear River and Bountiful exchanged a pair of quick interceptions, intercep-tions, the last one setting the Bears back to their seven yard line. Fuhriman began clicking with the pass, and the Bears' moved to the Bountiful 16. After Theurer was stopped for a one-yard loss, Fuhriman threw an incompletion, then tossed another screen pass to Theurer who was tackled immediately im-mediately for a three-yard loss by Murdock. On fourth down at the 20, Gillette intercepted Fuhriman inside the five. Bountiful started at its two yard line, Lindsey keeping on first down for four yards to the six. On second down, Jones went into the line, came through a pack of would-be tacklers, then broke into the open, outrunning everyone for a 94-yard touchdown that brought the house down. The lead peaked at 41-8 with 1 :08 left in the third quarter. Bear River scored three times in the final period, once on the game's last play, but the issue was long decided by that point. The Braves had begun to substitute freely after Jones' long TD, and only some annoying an-noying TV timeouts prolonged the inevitable. Winning coach Larry Wall had finally lassoed the state champion ship he ' s sought for six years, seasons when he's successfully led Bountiful to state each year. Wall was a member of the Viewmont High state champs of the 1970's, but coaching a champion had to be at least as sweet. Statistically, Bear River amassed 551 total yards to 391 for Bountiful, but the Braves picked off Fuhriman four times (Lindsey, Gillette, Godfrey God-frey and Roderick each had a pick). Fuhriman completed 30 of 45 passes for 393 yards, nine of those to Garfield for 146. Bountiful turned to Jones, who proved he is the finest running back in Utah as he gained 182 yards on 18 carries and scored four IDs. Haslam's efforts were nothing less than outstanding, with five PATs, two field goals and, perhaps just as importantly, four of six kickoffs into the endzone. In fact, there were so many heroes for the state champion Braves that it's hard to choose which player was most valuable in this game. "I've told you all year that this group of young men really does play as a team," Wall stated "We came into this game well-prepared, and it's been that way all year. These kids have been successful, they've played together for a long time, and they've kept their emotions emo-tions steady." Unbeaten. 13-0. State champions. cham-pions. The dream came true for the Braves Friday night for one main reason they made it come true. |