4A high school football: Red Devils hold off late Flyers' rush

For three quarters Thursday afternoon Springville could do no wrong. Then for five minutes it could do nothing right.

Fortunately for the Red Devils the good outweighed the bad, and now they're playing for their first state championship in 24 years following a 29-21 victory over Dixie in the 4A semifinals at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

"They believed they could do this," said Springville coach Scott Mitchell, whose team improved to 11-1 with the win. "It's extremely satisfying, but we're not done. It's not about just getting there; we expect to play and win."

Springville's visions of playing in the state championship game were a bit premature though. Trailing 29-0 heading into the fourth quarter, Dixie made things very, very interesting.

The Flyers cut the deficit to 29-7 on the first play of the fourth quarter, and then capitalized on two Springville fumbles in the final five minutes to whittle the lead to 29-21.

Despite failing to recover the onside kick, Dixie forced Springville into a three and out and took over possession with just under two minutes remaining. The Red Devils came up with the stop they needed though as Zach Gardanier intercepted a pass at his own 35-yard line with 38 seconds remaining.

"We like to keep it interesting, keep the fans here, give 'em their money's worth," said Mitchell. "It's going to kill me before it's over with, this is two weeks in a row. But we made it, we're there."

Springville could afford to be sloppy in the fourth quarter with as dominant as it was early both offensively and defensively.

The Red Devils set the tone on their first drive with an impressive 11-play scoring drive that Alema Key capped with a one-yard plunge for the 7-0 lead. Key added a 10-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter to increase his team's lead to 13-0.

Dixie, meanwhile, couldn't get anything going offensively, punting on its first four possessions as quarterback Mike Sharp struggled to find open receivers among Springville's stingy defense.

"It's been the most consistent part about our team," said Mitchell about the defense. "They play well together, they work hard."

Dixie compounded its problems by fumbling a punt midway through the second quarter. Springville quickly took advantage on a Marcus Case six-yard run as the Red Devils opened up a 19-0 lead by halftime.