OREM — In high school football, a team doesn't always have to play four quarters of quality football to walk away with a win.

In Orem's 14-9 win Friday over cross-town Timpanogos, the Tigers basically got the job done by winning the big-play battle. Both teams moved the ball decently in the middle of the field, but struggled to find any kind of offensive consistency. Both teams also made a lot of mistakes, had plenty of costly penalties and each team turned the ball over four times.

"I don't know if I've ever seen an uglier win," Orem coach Robert Steele said.

The difference? Three big pass plays by the Tigers and one impressive goal line stand. Actually, the Timberwolves had the football inside Orem's 10-yard line three times and failed to push it across every time.

"We might have bended a little bit, but we didn't break," Steele said.

Despite shooting themselves in the foot time and time again, the Timberwolves took a 6-0 lead on a 53-yard and a 39-yard field goal by Parker Brown — who also serves as the T-Wolves quarterback.

But Orem took a 14-6 lead into halftime when quarterback Josh Hamblin, early in the second, found Lance Chatterly in man coverage on the outside for an 80-yard TD strike. Then, right before half, Hamblin hit Tyler Boulter in similar coverage for a 50-yard pass that put the Tigers deep in Timpanogos territory. On a third-down from the 11, Hamblin finished the drive with a perfect lob into the left corner of the end zone to Jordan Egbert.

A 54-yard field goal by Brown early in the third quarter made it any team's ball game. Fortunately for the Tigers, neither team scored again. But the T-Wolves certainly had plenty of chances.

With just under nine minutes remaining, Timpanogos, after forcing Orem to punt from inside the 10, took over 30 yards from the end zone. Four plays later the T-Wolves had a first down on the 2-yard line. Two runs up the middle by Jaxon Fowler and an incomplete pass into the end zone put the T-Wolves into a fourth-and-goal from the one. On the goal line stand, Timpanogos tried to catch Orem off guard by handing off to lead blocker Scott Curtis, but the Tigers stuffed him at the line of scrimmage.

But three plays later Curtis picked off a pass at the 25-yard line to give Timpanogos another shot to go ahead with 3:55 remaining. But two plays after that, Orem's Josh Thomson picked off a pass on the 24-yard line.

Timpanogos got what looked like its last possession with :35 left. But — on first down from the 9-yard line — the snap from center sailed high over Brown's head and was picked up by Tiger lineman Alihi Faalafua, who rambled all the way to Timpanogos' 10-yard line. From there Orem took a knee to end the game.

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