Prep football: Bountiful stops Roy inside 1-yard line as time expires to win 42-35
Geilman, Redhawks overcome Young's 5 Roy touchdowns
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- Bountiful quarterback Emerson Geilman (4) scores the go-ahead touchdown against Roy on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Roy.
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- Roy’s Robert Young, middle far, finishes a 99-yard kick return touchdown against Bountiful on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Roy.
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- Roy’s Robert Young (5) scores a touchdown past Bountiful’s Sake Willis (29) on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Roy.
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- Bountiful quarterback Emerson Geilman, center white, reaches over the goal line for a touchdown against Roy’s Jaxton Scoffield (7) and Logan Cella (0) on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Roy.
ROY — Formally, Thursday night’s matchup with Bountiful was just game nine of 10 on Roy’s regular-season football schedule.
Unofficially, however, it was plausibly the Royals’ most meaningful matchup against the Redhawks since defeating Bountiful 17-13 in the 1981 title contest, earning Roy its only state championship.
Ultimately, the most consequential competitions for these two squads almost assuredly won’t be until after Halloween, but this preview set the standard for intense, drama-filled, exceptional high school football.
Nothing was decided until Roy — who won every game by double digits entering Thursday — ran three discombobulated plays from inside the Bountiful 3 in the final 46 seconds, the last of which resulted in quarterback Dru Gardner being dragged down as time expired.
The defensive stand finished a comeback that saw the Redhawks overcome a 28-14 deficit late in the second quarter to knock off the previously unbeaten Royals and escape with a 42-35 win. The victory likely secured Bountiful at least a piece of the Region 5 crown.
“It was crazy,” Bountiful junior running back Siaki Fekitoa said. “You know, our team has been looking forward to this game for like a year, since last year’s loss (26-14), so we just grinded it out.”
Roy came into the game with the most explosive offensive attack in Class 5A (42 ppg) and showed exactly why on its first play from scrimmage.
Following a 2-yard Bountiful punt, Robert Young — who is more accustomed to clutching the ball in the end zone — took a handoff before lofting a 35-yard scoring pass to teammate Zay Morris to give Roy a 7-0 lead with less than two minutes gone on the clock.
According to MaxPreps, Young came into the game as not only the statewide leader in touchdowns scored with 23, but was also tied for 16th nationally.
Once again, the slippery 5-foot-7, 165-pound all-purpose back was dynamic, adding to his totals by scoring all four remaining Roy touchdowns.
He caught a 29-yard swing pass from Gardner, weaved his way through the Bountiful defense on a 99-yard kickoff return, took a direct snap 21 yards for a rushing score and bounced outside for a 34-yard scamper.
The kickoff return marked the fourth straight game Roy has scored on a play of 99 yards or more.
Even apart from the final sequence, the Royals won’t have to look far to find little lapses that contributed to the loss.
Leading 28-14 with less than 50 seconds to play in the half, Bountiful quarterback Emerson Geilman reached over the lines and broke the plane of the goal line to narrow the deficit.
On Roy’s ensuing possession, the Royals elected to play aggressively by going to the air and were forced to punt with 14 seconds left.
Even with the ball at its own 30, the Redhawks weren’t keen on allowing the half to expire either. A 19-yard Fekitoa run put the ball at the Roy 47 and Bountiful was able to secure a timeout with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.
They didn’t exactly draw the next play up in the dirt, but it had a distinctly improvised feel to it.
Geilman rolled and connected with Britton Tidwell a few yards downfield. Tidwell then lateralled the ball to a streaking Fekitoa who raced downfield before tossing it to an awaiting Zeke Murdock. Murdock took it the final 15 yards before landing in the end zone among a heap of would-be Royal tacklers, stunning the Roy crowd.
“That was our first time running that and I play rugby, so it was a little rugby pass,” Fekitoa said. “We’ve run it in practice a couple of times.”
The Royals also mishandled a pair of Bountiful pooch kickoffs in the second half, allowing the Redhawks to recover both.
Bountiful couldn’t capitalize on the first one as Hunter Webb pressured Geilman and batted down a pass on fourth-and-goal from the Roy 17.
Young’s last touchdown run broke the 28-all tie with 1:52 left in the third period, but Bountiful quickly countered with an 80-yard drive capped by a 12-yard Fekitoa touchdown reception.
The Royals then muffed the subsequent kickoff, the second short pooch kick, allowing the Redhawks to set up what turned out to be the game-winning drive. Geilman took a designed run straight through the heart of the defense for a 26-yard score.
There was a sense that whichever team had the ball last would walk away with the win. Despite driving to the Bountiful 20 while trailing 42-35, Gardner was intercepted by Tidwell on a tipped ball with 4:57 to play.
The Royals did manage to force a Bountiful punt, providing its final opportunity with 2:07 left from their own 45.
They successfully chunked off big gains to get inside the Bountiful 5 and potentially tie or win the game before unraveling.
