High school football; Logan routs Bountiful in 4A semis

SALT LAKE CITY — There was simply no stopping the dynamic, dazzling performance by D.J. Nelson and Logan High's overpowering offense.

Nelson, the Grizzlies' spunky senior quarterback who's somewhat small in stature but absolutely huge on athletic ability, amassed an amazing state-record total of 606 yards of offense and accounted for seven touchdowns in all as the Grizzlies mauled Bountiful 59-30 in Thursday's 4A football semifinal matchup at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"I'm going to be real excited to watch that film," said Logan High head coach Mike Favero. "Obviously when you score 59 your QB played well, but to hear that he had 606 yards is almost unbelievable.

"We screwed up a few times. Believe it or not, we strive for perfection. That's not to say I'm not happy about what we did, but we really do want to be perfect. And when you set the bar that high and practice that way every day, you really want to be perfect. So we're certainly pleased with the outcome but we still have room for improvement.

"Coach (Larry) Wall and Bountiful are a proud program; he's as good a coach as the state of Utah has ever seen," Favero said, "so as we led up to this game, people acted like you've already killed 'em once (56-31 back on Sept. 2). But you know Larry Wall will have his team ready, and it showed. They had a great game plan and came out played very physical and precise early on, and we were able to hang on. These games down here, you don't worry about how many you win by. If you win you advance, and if you don't you go home. We played well enough to win."

Nelson had more than a little bit to do with that. After all, he threw for 417 yards and five touchdowns and ran for another 189 yards and two more TDs to propel Logan into next week's 4A state championship game against the winner of Thursday's other game between East and Timpview.

And he seemed much more interested in talking about reaching the 4A title game than he did about his eye-popping individual performance.

"It's the first time we've been back (in the state finals) in awhile and it means a lot to us, because we grew up watching them," Nelson said. "When I was in little league, I think I watched the finals game three times, so that means a lot to be on the same level as those guys who have come before us, and playing in the same program that they did means a lot to us.