WASHINGTON TERRACE — For three quarters, Bonneville was nothing short of a complete disaster on offense. The Lakers had accumulated 28 yards of total offense and had not crossed midfield since their first drive of the game.

The good news for Bonneville was that Ogden High's high-powered offense had not done much better. In the same span, the Tigers had gained just 196 yards and had failed to score on three separate drives into Laker territory.

Locked in a scoreless tie as the fourth quarter started, Bonneville liked its chances.

"We're used to close games going into the fourth quarter," senior running back Austin Land said. "I knew we had the momentum going into it. We just had to find the heart and go for it."

Land helped put Bonneville over the top, scoring an 8-yard touchdown run with 1:21 left in the game to help the Lakers upset previously undefeated Ogden 7-6 on Friday night.

That lone touchdown capped a final quarter that saw Bonneville gain 111 yards on its final two drives after experiencing so much futility up to that point. Junior quarterback Boston Nelson, who completed just 2-of-14 passes for 40 yards and an interception, made the biggest play of the final drive when he broke loose for a 22-yard run on fourth-and-2 from the Ogden 40.

"Our quarterback started to focus and really step his game up and started leading us and our line just did a great job," Land said.

For a while, it looked like it would be Nik Allred playing the role of hero once again. The Ogden quarterback had dazzled football fans across the state — setting state records and piling up yards and touchdown passes in bunches while leading Ogden to a 5-0 start.

But Allred found it tough to get into a rhythm against Bonneville. The senior completed 16-of-32 pass attempts for 254 yards with one interception and no touchdowns.

Still, Allred made some big plays on a drive that lasted nearly six minutes that helped the Tigers finally break the 0-0 tie. He ran a keeper 17 yards on fourth-and-3 from the Lakers' 47 to get Ogden into scoring position at the end of the third quarter and finished off the drive with a six-yard run 37 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 6-0.

Bonneville made a big special teams play a few seconds later when several players broke through the line and the Lakers blocked the Tigers' PAT.

The defense came up with an even bigger play in the final minute. Allred completed a pair of passes to Kel Robbins to move the Tigers down to the Lakers' 33 with 16 seconds remaining. But Connor Stephens burst into the backfield and sacked Allred for a nine-yard loss on the final play of the game to preserve the victory.

"Our defense had a great game plan and they stuck to it," Bonneville coach Matt Williams said. "The kids played hard and they believed in the system. We did what we needed to do."

Friday night was filled with emotion for Bonneville after longtime Lakers coach Thom Budge died on Wednesday from an apparent heart attack.

Bonneville players honored Budge's memory by wearing "TB" stickers on their helmets during the game, and both end zones also had his initials painted in the upper corners. School officials held a moment of silence for Budge just before the opening kickoff.

e-mail: jcoon@desnews.com