4A high school football: Few expect repeat of blowouts in quarters

Following a first round of the 4A playoffs that saw only one game decided by a touchdown or less, the competition should be stiffer in the quarterfinals.

"Every team you face now is going to be tough," said Woods Cross coach Fred Fernandes. "Every team is playing for their lives now, so you know you are going to have to play good football. There aren't going to be any cakewalks out there. The intensity is going to be that much higher and you need to stress to your kids just how much better they need to be."

For a team like Woods Cross, the players have to rely and trust the coach's words because the Wildcats are in some unfamiliar territory. While Fernandes won three state titles with Northridge earlier in the decade, Woods Cross hadn't been in the playoffs since 2005 before last week's win over Provo.

"I'm not sure if they knew what to expect," said Fernandes. "But they responded by just going about their business. There wasn't a lot of difference in practice and that worried me a bit, but I think I didn't really need to worry because they got the job done."

On the bright side for the Wildcats, they face a Springville team that is just as unfamiliar with being at this point in the playoffs as well. The Red Devils last advanced to the quarterfinals in 2005.

"The biggest thing for me is they need to be ready to play mentally," said Springville coach Scott Mitchell. "We just know we need to give our best shot in the playoffs. We need to create our own destiny. You lose you're done."

Creating playoff memories and experience isn't something that a few teams need to worry about in some of the other matchups. Highland and Mountain Crest both have reached the state title game in the last four years — including the Mustangs' victory over Highland in the 2005 title game. But that doesn't mean as much as some may think.

"We have a lot of guys that haven't been the real contributors in the playoffs," said Highland coach Brody Benson. "They have grown and gotten better as the season went on, have more experience, but you still never know exactly how they are going to react until they get out there."

Timpview has many players that know what it is like to lift the championship trophy. In fact, with three consecutive titles, the current T-Birds don't know it any other way.

"Our guys know how hard it is to get there, just what it takes," said Timpview coach Louis Wong. "They saw all the work that goes into winning it and want to keep up the tradition."

Timpview's opponent of Spanish Fork has players with playoff experience as many of the starters were on the field in last season's first round loss, but that occurred in 5A.

"I think a lot of our players gained confidence last year playing some of the toughest 5A teams," said coach Matt Christensen. "They know they can compete against anybody."

Bonneville has advanced to the quarterfinals in each of the last three seasons, but the Lakers have yet to reach the turf at Rice-Eccles.

"Our guys know what they need to do," said Bonneville coach Matt Williams of his team's task of traveling to St. George to play Dixie. "They will go about their preparation the same way and just want to take that one more step."

While there is no guarantee of barnburners, the talent levels and competition have certainly closed the gap. It would be surprising if the two-touchdown or more blowouts continue.

e-mail: mblack@desnews.com