Big plays help Pine View win

Sometimes a watershed moment can turn a back-and-forth slugfest into a thorough drubbing. Pine View had at least two of those moments Thursday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium, and after the first quarter, this one fell into the category of "thorough drubbing."

After 12 minutes of the 4A semifinal matchup were in the books, the Panthers had a 7-6 edge over Sky View. But the chess match became a lopsided fiasco after two huge plays deflated the Bobcats and turned the momentum in Pine View's favor.

Sky View took a 9-7 cushion on a field goal early in the second period only to have Riley Dias answer by darting around defenders and scoring on a 94-yard kickoff return. Then, with mere seconds remaining in the first half, Sky View was poised to score from within the Panthers' 5-yard line. Sky View quarterback Kyler Carlsen fired toward the sideline, but Pine View's Bo Heaton tipped the ball to teammate Justin Ence, who scampered to paydirt.

A score by the Bobcats would have set up a close game at halftime. Instead, the Panthers entered intermission on a furious tear.

"(Plays like that) break some teams' backs," said Pine View coach Ray Hosner, whose team earned a berth to the 4A championship game vs. Timpview next week by defeating Sky View 55-24. "They're looking to score and then we go in and score."

But it took more than one big play to break the Bobcats. Dias' touchdown dash gave the Panthers a narrow edge, but the boys from St. George still didn't have the game under control, even after tacking on another score with 3:23 left in the half. Sky View used a handful of deep pass plays to set up within five yards of the end zone before Ence's interception changed the game for good.

"Down in the end zone, we knew we had to get a stop," said Heaton. "The quarterback looked right at me, so I got my arm out there and tipped it."

Ence did the rest. But although he had nothing but open field in front of him after he secured the ball, he made no assumptions.

"I was thinking, 'Just run as fast as I can,"' he said. "I've been caught before."

Ence said the coaching staff had to calm the team down in the locker room at the half. There was, after all, another half to be played.

That seemed to be only a formality after the Panthers turned a sure score for the opposition into six for themselves.

"It really pumped us up," Ence said. "That's what sealed the game for us."