High school football: Springville overwhelms Pleasant Grove, picks up road victory

Springville piled it on against Pleasant Grove Friday night, earning its first Region 7 victory this season 34-8 on the road.

The game remained close until the fourth quarter, when the Red Devils rocketed past their hosts for a comfortable four-possession win.

“The score doesn’t show how close it was,” Springville head coach Dave Valeti said. “They’re a really good team. We knew it was going to be a dogfight. We played a sloppy game, but I’m happy the boys put it together.”

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The Red Devils took control of the game at the start of the fourth quarter on a pair of touchdowns scored by senior two-way standout Siaosi Toki.

Playing wide receiver, Toki caught three straight passes to start the fourth quarter, a 46 yard reception to put his team in the red zone, followed by an 18-yard touchdown catch before hauling in a two-point conversion that gave Springville a 21-0 advantage.

Then as a defensive back, Toki followed up his offensive touchdown with a 91-yard pick-six on Pleasant Grove’s ensuing drive.

“He’s a secret to the state right now,” Valeti said of Toki. “He’s great both ways. He was great last year, so hopefully he starts to get some of the flowers he deserves, and we’ll keep leaning on (him). He’s a good player.”

Toki was pivotal for the Red Devils throughout the game. Their first drive resulted in a touchdown and was jumpstarted by him on their initial offensive snap of the night — a 41 yard pass from senior quarterback Beckett Burton.

Springville had been planning that deep ball all week.

“Actually, we’ve been expecting that since Monday,” Toki said of the play that started his big night. “We were going to come out, go deep and I just had to go make a play.”

It was only the beginning of a memorable night for Springville’s star playmaker.

Senior running back Treyton Harris found the end zone on a 16-yard run three plays after Toki’s initial catch, giving the Red Devils the only touchdown of the first half.

Springville’s defense nearly kept Pleasant Grove out of the end zone in the second half as well, stifling the Vikings all night long until the home squad got on the board with 2:04 left in the game.

“(The) defense was amazing,” Valeti said. “We relied on them a lot in that first half, and then made a few big plays in the second half to pull away a little bit.”

The Red Devils’ defense came up big throughout the night, keeping Pleasant Grove at bay with timely turnovers and fourth down stops nearly every time the Vikings reached the red zone.

After Friday, both teams are 1-1 in Region 7 contests and remain behind Orem and Timpview in the standings.

Next week both will resume region play when Springville returns home to face Payson, while Pleasant Grove travels to Spanish Fork for a matchup with the Dons.

The contests are scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m.