High school football: Rams rally from huge deficit to grab win

If it would have been a heavyweight fight, someone might have thrown in the towel for the Highland Rams.

Woods Cross landed haymakers and body blows — in the form of big plays on offense and scored the game's first 23 points against Highland on Friday night. Fortunately for the Rams, they recovered and ended up dishing out a beating of their own.

Highland scored the game's final 43 points and defeated the Wildcats 49-30 on the Rams' senior night, clinching at least a share of the Region 6 championship and the league's No. 1 seed in the 4A playoffs. The Rams close their season against rival East next week, while Woods Cross is off until the first round of the playoffs.

It didn't look like that would be the case early on, as the Wildcats scored on their first five possessions and appeared to be superior to Highland in every phase of the game.

"Everybody was in shock," said Highland running back/defensive back Chris Lloyd. "It just took a slap in the face to get everybody going, and get us on the right track. We put up what — 41 in a row?"

The total was actually 43, and the Rams got creative to turn the game's momentum. Down 30-6, Highland called a fake punt on a fourth-and-8 at midfield. Up-back Toi Taufa executed it perfectly, completing a 22-yard pass to Lloyd. Quarterback Mason Keller, who accounted for five touchdowns on the night, finished off the drive with a 3-yard score to make it 30-12.

"The fake punt got the spark going when we were down 30-6 and we took off from there," Lloyd said.

There were two more momentum-changing moments before halftime. Holding a 30-12 lead with 1:20 left in the second quarter, the Wildcats attempted three straight passes rather than try and take some time off the clock. All three passes fell incomplete and Highland quickly capitalized.

Keller completed a three-play drive by throwing a 37-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Murphy to make it 30-18. The Wildcats fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Rams recovered. Lloyd then finished off a five-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 30-25 with 7.1 seconds left before halftime.

Highland scored 19 points in less than 90 seconds, and had all the momentum heading into the break.

"It started to steamroll and our kids caught fire it seemed like," said Rams coach Brody Benson.

The second half was no contest. After allowing Woods Cross to gain 285 yards in the first half, the Rams held the Wildcats to just 26 yards and one first down in the second half. Highland scored on its first possession when Keller and Murphy hooked up for another touchdown pass and the Rams took the lead for good.

A scoring drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock in the fourth quarter put the game away for the Rams.