Prep notebook: Bountiful showing off the offense

BOUNTIFUL — For the past several seasons, Bountiful has fielded one of the best scoring defenses in the state. Now it appears the offense is finally approaching a similarly high level for the Braves.

Over the past three weeks, Bountiful has outscored its opponents 139-21 and put together a three-game winning streak. The latest in this series of dominant efforts was a 41-0 victory over Orem on Saturday that helped the Braves advance to the 4A quarterfinal round for only the second time in the last six seasons.

Longtime head coach Larry Wall attributes the rise of the offense to his players putting in the same amount of hard work on both sides of the ball.

"Our defense is getting some turnovers and putting us in some good offensive field position," Wall said. "And our offense is controlling the football which is helping our defense out. It's kind of what you like to see. Both sides working together on that deal."

For Bountiful, that harmony could be what is needed to help the team return to Rice-Eccles Stadium for the first time since it won its last 4A football championship back in 2003.

Wall said that his team is operating on a high level of confidence now. The Braves believe they can make a deep run in the playoffs because they won a region title in a tough region and rapidly improved in making good on that goal because they faced good teams almost every week.

"You play to the caliber of the people you play," Wall said. "If you're playing weak teams all the time, I don't think you elevate and challenge yourself and play to your top (ability)."

Bountiful will face Spanish Fork in the 4A quarterfinals this Friday. It will be the second meeting for the two teams this season. The Braves edged the Dons for a 10-7 victory in week two.

CRAVENS JOINS JAYHAWKS: Former Weber State men's basketball Joe Cravens will be returning to the courtside again after agreeing to become the head girls' basketball coach last week at St. Joseph.

Cravens will replace Rick Stockel, who left the Jayhawks' program to coach at Weber High. This marks his first coaching job since he led the Wildcats from 1999-2006. While at Weber State, Cravens averaged 18 wins per season and helped the Wildcats reach the Big Sky Conference Tournament every year during his tenure.

Before coaching at WSU, Cravens served as a head coach at Idaho and was the interim head coach at Utah in 1989-90 when Rick Majerus took a medical leave of absence during his first season with the Utes.