4A high school football: Red Devils' defense holds off Wildcats

SPRINGVILLE — The most common way for a football team to survive a sloppy and mistake-ridden football game is to at least be solid on the defensive side of the football.

That's exactly why the Springville Red Devils are advancing to the 4A semifinals next week after holding off the Woods Cross Wildcats 16-12 on Friday.

"Sometimes on offense, you're just not quite in sync, and it's just great to have a defense that can come up with enough plays to win the game," Red Devils coach Scott Mitchell said.

Springville will face Dixie on Thursday at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium. It will be the Red Devils' first trip to the semis in 24 years.

"It's a great credit to our players and our coaches to be where we are," said Mitchell, the former U. of U. star quarterback who is in his second year as Springville's head coach. "We're excited about it and feel like we belong here and we're not overwhelmed by this."

That said, however, the Red Devils did look overwhelmed at times on Friday. In fact, despite scoring two touchdowns, Springville had only seven first downs. The two scoring drives the Red Devils did put together held up because their defense kept the Wildcats out of the end zone on three second-half red-zone possessions.

"We're disappointed, of course, because we've got a team that could have moved on," Woods Cross coach Fred Fernandes said. "But offensively we just didn't come to play today."

The officials, on the other hand, appeared confident in carrying out their duties by calling numerous critical penalties on both teams. But despite a late penalty that wiped away what could have been a game-winning touchdown for the Wildcats, Fernandes was not blaming the loss on the men in stripes.

"I'm not going to blame the officials, because we didn't play good enough to win," he said.

After a sluggish first quarter, the Red Devils got on the board early in the second quarter on a 1-yard dive by Alema Key. The short TD run was set up by a 29-yard pass from Steve Bate to Taylor Baker on a third-and-13. With under three minutes left in the half, Springville went up 9-0 when a high snap on a fourth down sailed out of the end zone.

It looked like the Red Devils would take that lead into the break, but a nice pass from Wildcat quarterback Tyler Parson to C. J. Corry out of the backfield, and two Springville personal foul penalties on the play, gave Woods Cross the ball inside the 10 — which allowed Steven Sperry to boot a 22-yard field goal with no time on the clock.