BOUNTIFUL — Since a 14-10 loss to Murray on Oct. 18, the Bountiful Braves have been chomping at the bit to get back on the field to redeem themselves.
On Saturday, in the first round of the 4A state tournament, the Braves made a statement to the rest of the 4A class as they ran past the Pleasant Grove Vikings, 42-7.
"We came in focused and ready to play today," Braves coach Larry Wall said. "Our kids have been going stir crazy for the last 10 days."
In the first half, it was senior Tui Auva'a who went stir crazy on the Pleasant Grove defense as he scored the games first four touchdowns.
His first touchdown came within the two minutes of the game as he scored on a 47-yard reception from Steve Matheson. On the Braves' second scoring drive, Auva'a went over the 1,000-yard mark in rushing for the season and scored on a 19-yard pass from Matheson to give the Braves a 14-0 lead with 6:42 left in the first quarter.
"It was real fun tonight," said Auva'a, who finished the game with three receptions for 72 yards, six carries for 14 yards along with an 82-yard punt return for a touchdown. "It all starts with the offensive line again and our fullbacks hit real hard."
In the first half, the Bountiful defense punished the Pleasant Grove offense as the Vikings were held to 29 yards of total offense.
"We watched a lot of film on the guy," Wall said. "He is an excellent running back, almost as good as ours. We had a lot or respect for him all week. I thought we did a good job of containing him."
"That"s a good club," Pleasant Grove coach Bill Mikelson said. "We didn"t play very well and they are the ones who made us play bad. They beat us in every possible phase of the game."
Bountiful will host Orem next week in the quarterfinals action of the 4A tournament.
In other 4A playoff games:
HIGHLAND 44, SPRINGVILLE 34: Highland quarterback Cody Herrick rushed for two touchdowns and threw for two more as the Rams upended the Region 6 champion Red Devils. Springville led 27-13 at the half but was outscored 28-7 in the final two quarters. Springville quarterback Eric Bills threw two TD passes and rushed for two more.
BOX ELDER 56, TIMPANOGOS 9: Colt Mund had a career-high six touchdowns in leading the Bees to an easy first-round win. Five of Mund's touchdowns were rushing, and one was a 15-yard interception return. Mund finished with 167 yards rushing on 13 carries.