SANDY — The football was just sitting there on the 8-yard line, begging for someone to scoop and score, yet nobody did.
Not Alta receiver Daniel Thomason, who the ref said caught the ball before it was punched out, and definitely not the five or six Box Elder defenders who could’ve easily jumped on the ball or picked it up and ran the other way.
Everyone just stood there looking at the ball thinking it was an incomplete pass — everyone except Alta sophomore center Cameron Fullwood. He was the first to recognize the ref hadn’t blown his whistle, darting in to scoop the ball and barrel those eight yards into the end zone near the corner pylon.
His unlikely touchdown gave Alta a two-score cushion midway through the fourth quarter, which it definitely needed as the error-prone Hawks held on for the 27-21 over Box Elder on Friday night in the 5A first round.
“We didn’t fire on all cylinders tonight and we’ve got to take a good look at the film and identify why that was so, but regardless I was proud of the guys and the effort. There’s some learning from this and we’re going to figure that out real quick,” said Alta coach Alema Te’o, whose team turned the ball over twice on Box Elder’s side of the field in the second half.
It wasn’t a clinical performance, but Alta made enough plays to advance to next Friday’s 5A second round where it will travel No. 2 seed Provo.
“I told my kids, you can’t play like this next week, you get one pass and tonight we were lucky and I’ll take it,” said Te’o.
- Watch replay: Alta 27, Box Elder 21
Alta quarterback Cinco Lucero had an up-and-down performance, but he still managed to throw three touchdown passes on the night, including a pair to Daniel Thomason with BYU coach Kalani Sitake on the sideline looking on.
Thomason took a simple sideline pass on the first play of the third quarter and raced 80 yards for the score as he stiff armed the last defender who tried to push him out of bounds.
That score pushed Alta’s 14-7 halftime lead to 21-7 and the Hawks had all the momentum to start to pull away from underdog Box Elder.
Alta had a chance to stretch the lead to three touchdowns late in the third quarter, but Box Elder’s Trevin Johnson intercepted Lucero at the 4 yard line and four plays later Nate Wheatley sprinted 80 yards on a counter play trimming the lead to 21-14 on his second touchdown of the game.
Alta’s offense regrouped and marched downfield again, but that next drive also ended with an interception on a third down throw at Box Elder’s 18 yard line.
The Hawks’ defense stiffened and forced a quick punt, with the offense responding with an eight-play drive that Fullwood capped with his unlikely touchdown.
“I’m so proud of our offense and the headsy play that our center made on the fumble there,” said Te’o.
Resilient Box Elder continued to scrap despite the deficit, and quarterback Parker Buchanon connected with Logan Holgate on a 45-yard TD pass trimming the lead to 27-21 with 5:29 remaining in the game.
Box Elder elected not to try an onside kick, and Alta proceeded to run all but 13 seconds off the clock on an impressive 11-play drive that moved the ball down to Box Elder’s 18 yard line.
The biggest play of the game-clinching drive was a 19-yard run by Jahmaine Griego on third and eight as made an ankle-breaking juke at the line of scrimmage that caused a would-be Box Elder tackler to fall down as he raced toward the sideline for the first down.