High school football: Allred amazing in Tigers big win over Logan

OGDEN — Ogden had accomplished a ton of positive things throughout the opening month of the season en route to the school's first 4-0 start since 1966, but coach Eric Eyre didn't try to downplay the importance of his team's Region 5 opener against Logan on Friday.

"I said that if we didn't win this game tonight, the four games that we won previously really didn't mean anything in terms of changing peoples' perceptions in the state as a whole," said Eyre after his team responded brilliantly to beat Logan 63-42.

"I know that people in this community are excited and there's a buzz, but when it comes down to it, we've got to be able to win Region 5 games. We've got to be able to compete and get into the playoffs, and if we lost tonight, that was in serious jeopardy."

Ogden's all-everything quarterback Nik Allred and his superb supporting cast made sure that didn't happen, however.

Allred finished with Madden-like numbers — 429 yards and seven TDs through the air and 150 yards and one TD on the ground — and a number of guys stepped up around him to propel Ogden to a critical region-opening victory. Allred's seven TD passes tie a state record.

Allred also had an interception on defense and was truly spectacular throughout, as he has been throughout the season.

"What he did on offense and defense was just phenomenal," said Eyre.

As a team, Ogden hadn't seriously faced adversity at any point during its opening four wins, with the possible exception of a close first half against Stansbury in Week 3.

The Tigers faced plenty of adversity against Logan, but they responded with aplomb.

In particular, they didn't flinch when things went wrong early on, and they didn't panic when they made some costly mistakes to let Logan back into the game near halftime.

Ogden appeared to be headed into halftime with a 28-13 lead when Alfonso Perea scored from nine yards with 1:52 left in the half.

However, Logan responded with a quick TD strike, recovered an onside kick and subsequently scored another TD, and got into the endzone yet again less than a minute into the third quarter to completely turn the game around and suddenly lead, 34-28.

To their immense credit, however, the Tigers never panicked.