High school football: Roy’s dramatic fourth-quarter comeback secures 5A semifinal upset win over Timpview

Ignore the “T” on Timpview’s helmet — that was Roy coach Chris Solomona’s message to his team ahead of Friday’s 5A semifinal at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

In the 43 years since Roy won its only state championship back in 1981, Timpview had built a dynasty with 12 state titles, including last year’s 5A championship.

Solomona knew that in order to knock off the tourney favorites, his players had to believe they could win.

“We were telling our guys all week, you take that T off their helmet and let’s just play them like another team. And they truly believed,” said Solomona.

Top seed Roy scored 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter — including two 50-plus yard field goals from Colby Frokjer — to rally past Timpview for the stunning 29-19 victory to book its place in next Thursday’s 5A state championship.

Momentum ebbed and flowed throughout the game with key fourth down stops and key turnovers, but it was Roy that made the plays late to improve to 12-1 on the season.

“They showed it today, I couldn’t be more proud of these boys, credit to them and our coaching staff, and our community, man they showed out today,” said Solomona.

There were many heroes on the Roy sideline on Friday, but nobody created a buzz quite like senior kicker Frokjer. The Montana State commit booted a 58-yarder early in the fourth quarter — the longest field goal in state playoff history — and then a 53-yarder with 35 seconds left to ice the victory.

“I just saw the post and I knew I had to split them, and that’s what I did. On all three field goals I didn’t have a doubt in my mind I was going to miss any of them,” said Frojker, who said he loves to hunt and fish and he can’t wait to get up to Montana to start his college career.

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His 58 yarder came at the 9:35 mark of the fourth quarter, and seemed to swing momentum permanently back for Roy.

The distance was originally supposed to be 53 yards, but Roy had a delay of game penalty that backed the ball back to the 41 yard line. Roy’s coaches initially said they wanted to punt, but Frojker waived them back and the coaches nodded in approval.

In many ways it was the exactly moment Solomona kind of promised Frojker back in the final game of the regular season when he injured his shoulder.

“I told him, if you can come back we’re going to need that leg, not only with our kickoffs and he gets touchbacks, but we’re going to need him to make big field goals like that. I told special teams are so huge in the playoffs, I knew I was going to give him this opportunity,” said Solomona.

His 58-yarder tied the game 19-19, but Timpview’s awesome moved the ball quickly to midfield but stalled on a fourth and 10 at the 46 yard line.

Three plays later on a third and five, Roy went for the proverbial jugular. Roy receiver Zay Morris ran a “man-beater” route up the right sideline, and quarterback Dru Gardner dropped a perfect pass in behind the defense that Morris ran under for a 62-yard TD reception and the 26-19 lead with 3:51 remaining.

Timpview’s ensuing drive end with another failed fourth down conversion, but with no time outs remaining and only 2:55 remaining on the clock the situation was pretty dire.

On top of that, Frojker was on the edge of his field goal range. On fourth and one from the 36 yard line, following a timeout Roy’s coaches decided to put their faith in Frojker to ice the win instead of trying to play power football.

By that point everyone in the stadium knew what the kicker was capable of, and he split the uprights on the 53 yarder no problem.

“Instead of trying to run it and run the time out, they believed in me that I was going to hit a third one of the game and seal it away,” said Frojker.

The senior kicker wasn’t the only standout for Roy. Running backs Logan Cella and Robert Young combined for 35 carries and 186 yards as they regularly ran between the tackles for big first downs. Gardner was almost perfect when called upon as he completed 12 of 15 passes for 135 and two TDs.

Gardner helped set the early tone for Roy that it could compete with Timpview as he engineered a 13-play, 77-yard drive after the opening kickoff that ended in a Young 7-yard TD reception for the 7-0 lead.

“We knew we had to start fast,” said Solomona about the opening drive that featured a perfect blend of run and pass.

After the teams traded field goals, Timpview cut the deficit to 10-9 after a missed extra point following Jaron Pula’s 22-yard TD pas from Soakai Aston.

Luke Thornock’s 22-yard field on the final play of the first half gave Timpview its first lead of the game 12-10, and with possession to start the second half the T-Birds were in great position to open things up in the third quarter.

Instead, the T-Birds went three and out and punted the ball. Roy responded by playing power football running Young out of the “Wildcat” and he rushed the ball for 54 yards, including the go-ahead 26-yard TD run with 8:42 left in the third.

Roy’s defense forced a quick turnover, and leading 16-12 it had a chance to extend the lead to seven with a chip shot field goal on fourth and two at the three-yard line, but Timvpiew’s defense stuffed the run up the middle to regain possession.

The T-Birds proceeded to march 98 yards in less than three minutes to go ahead 19-16.

From there, Roy scored on every possession, and it all started with Frojker’s 58-yard that will talked about for years.

“Ever since we lost in the quarterfinals last year our whole goal was to win state next year, and when we saw that they were going to get in our way, that’s just another team in our way,” said Frojker.