4A high school football: Big plays give T-birds big lead

Moments after Mountain Crest quarterback Alex Kuresa found Mitch Jessop on a 22-yard toss — simply the first of four touchdown passes thrown by the sophomore signal-caller — Travis Van Leeuwen looked at the impending kickoff as a mandate for him to retake some momentum from the Mustangs.

"I just wanted to make a play for our team and get us going," Van Leeuwen said. "(Going) down 7-3 is unacceptable."

The ball sailed toward him, and the Timpview senior tucked it in his arms just outside the goal line. He cut through an opening and took off down the Thunderbirds' sideline. Ninety-nine yards later, Timpview had retaken the lead for good.

Big plays like Van Leeuwen's kickoff return are what ultimately made the biggest difference as the T-Birds survived a late Mountain Crest rally and took home a 37-35 victory on Friday afternoon at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Timpview scored three touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 24-13 lead into halftime. The shortest scoring play was a 26-yard pass from Casey Rumsey to Van Leeuwen with 39.1 seconds left in the half.

Sandwiched in between Van Leeuwen's pair of huge scoring plays was a basic quarterback draw play that Rumsey quickly turned into a 56-yard scamper into the end zone.

Those kind of quick-strike big plays underscore the philosophy Timpview has on offense when it takes the field.

"We want to answer back every time and think every play can be a touchdown," Rumsey said. "That's our mentality for the most part."

The only danger from all the big plays came when Mountain Crest fought its way back into the game in the fourth quarter. Timpview had a hard time sustaining long clock chewing drives, which allowed Kuresa plenty of time and space to try and work a comeback for the ages.

He nearly did it, too, throwing for 344 yards and four touchdowns on 26-of-40 passing. The last one — a 27-yarder to Matt Stewart — made it 37-35 with 6:24 left in the game.

"The problem with us is we score too fast sometimes," T-Birds coach Louis Wong said. "It gave them too much time on the clock in the second half. Gosh, they shouldn't have gotten that last score."

While the ending of the game may have turned out to be too close for comfort, Timpview saw some positives in dealing with an opponent bent on making a comeback. It showed them they can't take anyone for granted, even in the midst of a state record 35-game winning streak.

"You just can't ever put your head down," said Van Leeuwen, who finished with 247 all-purpose yards for the T-Birds. "You got to keep fighting."

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E-mail: jcoon@desnews.com