PROVO — With only 17 ticks remaining on the clock, the only difference in the Spanish Fork vs. Timpview football game was a missed extra point by Ryan McNamara way back in the second quarter.
Fortunately for the Thunderbirds' senior kicker and his teammates, he got a late chance at redemption. After two Dons timeouts intended to freeze him, McNamara confidently split the uprights from 25 yards out to give Timpview a 16-14 win — the school's first game on its new artificial-turf field.
"At first I was kind of nervous and my heart was going real fast, but once the ball was down clean I just nailed it," McNamara said.
The game was billed as a match-up of offensive powers but turned to be more of a defensive showcase.
Neither team put together any consistency rushing or passing, and the teams combined to punt the ball 10 times. Spanish Fork did manage 14 first downs to only eight for Timpview. The game's points all came from big plays. And if not for a few bad breaks and mistakes late in the game that went against the Dons, McNamara never would have had that final game-winning chance.
First, the Dons appeared to have scored on their first drive of the second half on a 7-yard run by Drew Davis, but the officials ruled Davis' knee touched inches before the goal line. Timpview then held the Dons out of the end zone on the next three plunges.
Then, with just over two minutes remaining in the game and the Dons ahead 14-13, a bad snap on a punt attempt gave Timpview the ball on Spanish Fork's 37-yard line. Don defensive back Zack Fox appeared to have intercepted the ball seconds later on a third-and-five play, but the officials ruled he trapped the ball. Then, on fourth-and-five, the Dons knocked a pass away but were flagged for pass interference — giving Timpview the ball on the 16-yard line with 1:17 remaining.
Five plays later the T-birds had the ball on the 4-yard line, giving McNamara a perfect look at the game-winning field goal, the game's only points of the second half.
Timpview scored the game's first 13 points. Midway through the first quarter quarterback Quin Mecham broke loose on a scramble for a 59-yard gain to Spanish Fork's 4-yard line. After two straight rushing losses and a penalty, Mecham hit Mark Ercanbrack in the corner of the end zone for a 17-yard scoring toss. Early in the second quarter the T-Birds added to their lead when a 35-yard pass to Todd Salmon and a 10-yard pass to Ercanbrack set up Russell Showcroft's 2-yard touchdown run. But McNamara's kick missed to the right, making the score 13-0.
The Dons came right back with a 12-play 78-yard drive to cut the lead to six. The big play was a 37-yard pass from Griff Robles to Jordan Smith on third and 14. Two personal-foul penalties by Timpview also aided the drive. The scoring play was a 3-yard touchdown run by Davis.
Spanish Fork had excellent field position on its next possession, thanks to a 34-yard punt return by Smith. Two plays later Robles hit Fox, who made a great diving catch on a perfectly thrown ball for a 29-yard gain to the 1-yard line. Robles carried the ball in from there on a keeper. Garrett Johnson's second point-after put the Dons up 14-13. The scored stayed that way until McNamara's final kick.
The Dons had dedicated the game to Davis' father, Duane Davis, who is in the hospital in a coma. Doctors discovered last weekend that the elder Davis has a brain tumor. Dons' players had the initials "DD" written on their arms.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com