5A high school football: Second-half surge pushes Alta past Fremont

SANDY — The Alta Hawks got a first-round scare Friday night, and it had nothing to do with Halloween.

The Hawks were given a much bigger fright than expected from the Fremont Silverwolves, the fifth-seeded team from Region 1 but rallied to claim a 38-14 win in the opening round of the 5A playoffs.

With the victory, Alta advanced to play Cottonwood in a rematch of their season opener this year.

Alta, the top seed from Region 4, improved its record to 9-2. But the Hawks needed an impressive defensive performance in the second half. The game was actually much closer than the final score indicated.

In the final 24 minutes, the Hawks limited Fremont to 48 yards. They never let Fremont establish a running game, and quarterback Brody Garr, who played a near-perfect first half, completed 9 of 21 for 80 yards and two interceptions after that.

"All those north (Region 1) teams are well coached," said Alta coach Les Hamilton. "I felt really good about the second half. We made some changes at halftime, and came up with some big plays."

The first big play actually came late in the first half. Fremont had taken advantage of Zac Christian's interception of a Jordan Brown pass and went ahead 14-12 when Nick Vigil took a screen pass from Garr and rambled 17 yards for a touchdown.

That score came with 1:21 left, but it ended up giving Alta too much time.

Brown moved Alta downfield with three straight completions, and the Hawks were helped by a personal foul penalty on Fremont. On a third-down play with 16 seconds left, Brown hit Tyron Morris on a 9-yard scoring pass to give the Hawks the lead going into intermission.

After that, the game was one-sided. Alta outscored Fremont 18-0 in the second half.

"You might have noticed they're a little bigger than we are," said Fremont coach Kory Bosgieter, noting his team finished with minus 41-yards rushing, thanks to six sacks and one quarterback hurry in the end zone that was ruled a safety when Garr was penalized for intentional grounding.

"They're a very good team. We were able to stay with them, but they adjusted to a few of our plays."

Screen passes to Vigil, and quick throws to guys like 6-foot-6 wide receiver Tate Lewis and Vance Bitton gave Fremont fans plenty to cheer about in the first half.

But Alta moved the ball throughout the second half, thanks to the running of Taylor Eyring (99 yards) and Bryan Finnerty (71 yards). The Hawks made it 28-14 on a 5-yard run by Brown — and a two-point conversion — and just kept piling it on after that.

Long, methodical drives were the key. Alta finished with 28 first downs and Brown bounced back from that first-half interception to play a near-perfect game after that. Alta dominated the time of possession, and interceptions by Beaver Ho-Ching and Rhett Sandlin kept Fremont frustrated until the clock ran out.