High school football: Bountiful's defense cages explosive Leopards

BOUNTIFUL — Containing East's explosive offense has been an impossible task for nearly every opponent the Leopards have faced this season. Bountiful wanted to prove their defense was on a higher plane than all the others East had faced and beaten down.

The Braves did what no team before them managed to do. They caged the Leopards.

Bountiful scored on the first play of the game and coasted to a 21-0 victory on Friday night behind a defense that forced East quarterback Tanner Curtis to throw four interceptions and held the previously unbeaten Leopards to just 51 yards of total offense in the final two quarters.

"This was a huge game for us," senior defensive back Kyle Pawlowski said. "We wanted to come out and prove that we are a great team. And I think we did that tonight."

The Braves wasted no time putting their stamp on the game. Bountiful scored on the game's opening play when Matt Parrish nabded a screen pass from Cam Zollinger, dodged one tackle after another, and took the ball 74 yards for a touchdown.

Just like that, Bountiful had taken a 7-0 lead over shell-shocked East. Even Parrish was surprised at how quickly he found the end zone.

"It doesn't seem real," Parrish said. "I just ran hard and did everything I could do."

Once the Braves had momentum, they kept it that way.

The Leopards did a decent job of moving the chains on their first two drives. Both times, they moved deep into Bountiful territory.

On both drives, however, they failed to convert a fourth down and turned the ball back over to the Braves. The first drive failed when a pass from Curtis to Patrick Waldron fell incomplete on 4th and 11 from the Bountiful 34. The second drive came up short when Teau Satuala sacked Curtis for a 7 yard loss on 4th and 4 from the Braves' 8 yard line.

Things just went downhill for the Leopards after that point. Bountiful made it 14-0 when backup quarterback Tyler Hayes found Tyler Poppe for a 55 yard touchdown pass with 5:44 left before halftime. East could not close the gap before halftime after two consecutive second-quarter drives ended with Pawlowski picking off a pass from Curtis.

Bountiful coach Larry Wall said the defense did a good job of disrupting the East offense by keeping Curtis off-balance all night.