4A high school football preview: Timpview at Springville

Timpview (10-0) at Springville (9-1)

4A state tournament quarterfinal

Friday, 3:30 p.m.

Parry's Power Guide: Timpview by 17

All-time series: Timpview leads 18-11

Coach vs. Coach: Timpview's Louis Wong leads Springville's Scott Mitchell, 2-0

Last meeting: Nov. 20, 2009 — Timpview 35, Springville 6 (4A championship)

SPRINGVILLE — It's way too early for this game.

It is unfortunate that sometimes the UHSAA has the brackets set up in advance for the high school football playoffs because two teams that won their respective regions — as both Timpview and Springville did — and have a combined record of 19-1, shouldn't be meeting in the quarterfinals. Never mind that these two teams met in last year's 4A championship game. But as the old cliché goes: it is what it is.

"I think it is unfortunate this type of game happens this early," said Springville coach Scott Mitchell. "I mean, if you are going to win a state championship, you are going to have to play them (Timpview) sometime, but unless you win a region, you shouldn't get a No. 1 seed."

With 4A having five regions — well, really it's four and a half with Region 9 having a split between 3A and 4A — the UHSAA had set up the playoffs to give the 4A representative from Region 9 a top seed. Most years, that works out just fine. But this season it gave Pine View, which finished third in its region behind 3A's Cedar and Hurricane, a No. 1 spot and the Panthers are hosting a quarterfinal game.

While it may seem a bit unfair, the fact is that two outstanding football teams will meet in Springville.

"I think it is awesome," said Timpview coach Louis Wong. "It will be a challenging game. This is what your team prepares for all year."

"We've known all season that if we wanted to win a state title, we would have to go through Timpview," said Mitchell. "They are a very good football team."

With both teams as region champions, one team also had to travel. Springville was the fortunate one that gets to host the game, and the approaches to that fact couldn't be more different.