From Deseret News archives:
High school football: Colts hold off late Tiger rally
The Colts took a 24-0 lead but watched as Orem, the fourth-place team from Region 5, rallied to almost knot the score at the end, before finally claiming a 31-24 victory.
Kyle Aberton's interception of a Josh Hamblin pass at the 14-yard line finally sealed it with 40 seconds to go and kept the Colts undefeated. Afterward, the small Orem crowd cheered their team, while Cottonwood fans wondered what went wrong.
"I'm not happy. Not at all," Cottonwood coach Cecil Thomas said. "This was our worst fourth-quarter performance this year. We've always been a fourth-quarter team. It was disappointing."
The Colts were outscored 24-7 in the final quarter. Cottonwood had the ball with less than two minutes remaining and seemed ready to run out the clock, but quarterback Steve Romero fumbled. One play later, Hamblin hit Sam Poulsen on a 40-yard pass play to the Colts' 18-yard line.
Cottonwood's defense came alive, however, and sacked Hamblin on two straight plays. Hamblin, who completed 24-of-38 passes for 310 yards, was intercepted on the next play.
It wasn't until then that every Cottonwood fan could breathe a sigh of relief. It wasn't the impressive rout the Colts wanted. However, Cottonwood is 11-0 on the season, advances to the 4-A quarterfinals, and will play a home game against Bonneville next week.
Orem's players were sad to see their huge comeback fall short. Tigers coach Robert Steele said his team played almost flawlessly in its 32-0 win over rival Mountain View last week that enabled them to make the postseason.
The fourth quarter seemed like a repeat performance.
"We didn't quit and, finally, everything started to click," Steele said. "I just told the kids not to get down on themselves."
For Cottonwood, the game got out of hand as soon as the fourth quarter started. The Colts were ahead 24-0, primarily thanks to the two-man team of Isi Sofele, who rushed for 124 yards on 28 carries and scored three touchdowns, and Romero, who threw for 250 yards.
Those two were especially impressive in the first half, when Cottonwood took a 17-0 lead into the locker room. The Colts held a 266-77 advantage in total yards and held the ball almost twice as long as Orem.
Tyler Boulter finally got Orem on the scoreboard on the first play of the final period when he caught a 20-yard pass from Hamblin. Boulter had a big day, with 10 catches for 89 yards and two scores.
Cottonwood retaliated immediately. After recovering an on-sides kick, Romero hooked up on pass plays to Jason Lundquist and Alo Moli before Sofele scored on an 8-yard run.
That made it 31-8 with 10:47 left in the game, but it wasn't over.
Orem took advantage of two defensive pass-interference penalties and scored on a Hamblin-to-Boulter pass and a two-point conversion.
Cottonwood couldn't move the ball, so Orem got another chance and made it a game — 31-24 — following a 13-play drive. The Tigers converted a 3rd-and-32 pass play to Austin Jones, and then Jones caught a touchdown pass on the next play.
In the end, Cottonwood held and the Tigers fell short. Coach Thomas said he knew people would use this game to compare the Colts with Orem's Region 5 counterpart — Timpview.
"Timpview is way off in the future for us," he said.
