| OCR Text |
Show Q Q(JXDCFQ j fT 4 ' ) I "4 , J t 'A . j I , . ',' w f ? ..." .4 I , ' - ,.! ws -V J i i 'i , ,v s " - - : , -t- f k ; if - i 1 Y I -v - ' r . J I r ? f ' i $ If , ' ' - - 'V f - 1 ' ' ' f - ' 1 NEIL PETEKSON dances his way through the Mountain View defenders last Friday. Peterson later separated his shoulder and will be out of action for 6-8 weeks. Number 54 is Mike Sumner with Brad Kitchen on ground and Jeff Hamner in background. Photo by Jared Helis. Vikes move to semi-finals after 28-8 win over Bruins A small team from a little school soundly whipped a huge team from a big school Friday when Pleasant Grove kicked Mountain View 28-8 in a State 3-A quarterfinal game. Playing in the lavish Bruin Stadium, a facility that makes the other Alpine School District ! football fields look poverty stricken, j Pleasant Grove rolled to a 28-0 I fourth quarter lead before the Bruins were able to post a score, i Like two boxers probing for an j opening, PG and Mountain View j sparred back and forth through a scoreless first quarter. In the second ! period, the Vikes began to "outquick" the big Bruin linemen : I with Eric Thomas and Neil j Peterson finding flaws in the Bruin I defense. Thomas and Peterson read 1 the option to near perfection, keeping the ball for big gains. When the Viking quarterback tandem could not run, they pitched to Corby Morris or Mark Clements on the outside. As the Bruin defensive coaches scrambled to shut down that phase of the option, Thomas and Peterson then handed off to Shaun Story or Heath Johnston up the middle for big yardage. PG went 75 yards in a beautiful 13 play drive in the second period with Johnston going the final two yards for the touchdown. Matt Norman kicked the first of four extra points and the Vikes were on top to stay 7-0. That's the way the first half ended. Mountain View fans still expected the Bruins to explode and live up to head Coach Austin ; McNaughton's statement, "We i shouldn't have any trouble getting i by Pleasant Grove." McNaughton i was quoted as making that statement in a Deseret News story four days before the game. Viking head Coach Doug Bluth duplicated copies of that story and put it on each Viking player's locker. It was i worth at least two PG touchdowns. The Bruins took the second half ! kickoff and for a time the fired up ! Mountain View team looked like i they would live up to Coach McNaughton's prediction. Jim Payne, Mt. View junior quarterback, directed the Bruin offense to a first down on the PG 18 I yard line. A first down pass was dropped. The PG defense led by Phil Cook and Story smothered Bryan Benson for a yard loss on second down and they forced Payne to throw incomplete to bring up fourth down. Eric Behunin's field goal attempt was short where Peterson fielded it on the one yard line. Peterson returned the kick to the 14. After 3 plays, the Bruin defense forced the Vikes to punt. The kick was high but very short and Mt. View had excellent field position on PG's 25 yard line. Brad Kitchen and Shaun Nuttall stopped Benson for no gain and , then the 6-4 Kitchen batted down a Payne pass at the line of scrimmage. Faced with another long fourth down situation, the Bruin coaching staff elected to go for the touchdown rather than try another field goal. Payne's pass was picked off by Norman who returned it to the 43 before a hustling Payne could knock him out of bounds. Now the sparring was over and the Vikes moved in for the knockout. Thomas pitched to Morris around left end on the option and the senior tailback broke a tackle at the line of scrimmage. He then used a great block by Norman and shot down the sideline 44 yards to score. PG fans went wild as the teams traded ends to begin the final quarter of play. After forcing the Bruins to give up the ball on downs at midfield, Thomas hit Johnston on a beautiful screen pass. Johnston used his blockers as well as you can use them, cut back across the field and raced 51 yards to the end zone. Cook kicked off for the Vikes and as the coverage tackled the Bruin ball carrier, the ball came loose with Cook pouncing on the fumble at the 34 yard line. Using Story and Johnston inside and Morris and Clements outside the Vikings drove to the two yard line where the Bruin defense stiffened. Coach Doug Bluth called for the "two point pass play" and Thomas found Scott Mosher in the end zone. With Norman's fourth straight extra point kick, the Vikes had K.O.ed the Bruins 28-0. With three minutes to play Mt. View avoided a shutout when Payne scored from the three yard line and then passed complete for two points to make the score 28-8. Using a high soft onside kick the Bruins got the ball back and a pass interference call gave them a first down at the Viking 11. Cook, who spent much of the day in the Bruin backfield, sacked Payne for a big loss and the defense forced two incomplete passes and a short gain to end the Bruin threat. The game officials stopped the game after several Bruin players attempted to steal the Viking player's game towels. These towels had a Viking head and the word RICE painted in blue on the small wash cloth sized towel. Coach Bluth had to go on the field and collect the towels when the officials said they were "inciting the Bruin players." Statistically PG rushed for 224 yards to 83 for Mountain View while the Bruins held the edge in the passing department 108 to 71. The Vikes were penalized 62 yards to 15 against the Bruins. Today at 11 a.m. the Vikes meet Judge Memorial in Rice Stadium on the University of Utah campus. Judge finished second to number one ranked Jordan in that region. In fact, three of the final four 3-A teams are second place squads. This speaks well for the expanded State playoff system. One note of bad news from the Mountain View game. Neil Peterson, Viking quarterback and starting safety, separated a shoulder malting a tackle in the third period. Peterson underwent surgery Saturday morning and will be out of action for the remainder of the football season. Coach Bluth was high in his praise for Peterson's efforts during the season. "Pete has worked very hard and really helped the team both on offense and defense," said Bluth. - Jordan plays Provo in a re-match from last year's semi-final game right after the PG-Judge game. .-.TOmaftwawMittM'tjHia SAM SMITH (25) and Trin Card (18) bump ball during a high school volleyball match. Photo by Quint Gardner. |
