You could see it in warmups. You could see it on the first snap. By the second quarter you could see it from the top row at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
West is bigger than Bountiful. Not a little bigger. Weight-class bigger.
The top-seeded Panthers beat the fourth-seeded Redhawks 29-12 in Friday's Utah 5A semifinal, and they did it without ever looking like they had to empty the tank. That's a compliment and a complaint, and I'll get to both.
| The semifinal at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Final | West 29, Bountiful 12 |
| The number | Bountiful ran 15 times for minus 19 yards |
| What's next | West (13-0) plays Orem for the 5A title on Friday, Nov. 20 |
West's size showed up in the box score
There's an old boxing line that weight classes exist for a reason. Put the little guy in with the big guy and the little guy gets hurt. Friday was that line wearing shoulder pads.
West's roster looks like somebody built it in Madden franchise mode with the strength sliders maxed out, and it played like it. The Panthers ran for 247 yards on 51 carries. Bountiful ran 15 times for minus 19. Not a typo. The Redhawks didn't pick up a single first down on the ground all day.
The air wasn't much friendlier. Bountiful's receivers spent the afternoon running into coverage, and Huddy Malmrose finished 16 of 40. West outgained Bountiful 476 yards to 137 and held the Redhawks to 1 of 12 on third down.
West got sloppy, and it didn't matter
Here's the complaint. West played with its food.
The Panthers were flagged 19 times for 220 yards. Bountiful picked up seven first downs on West penalties, more than it got through the air (six) or on the ground (zero). Some of those flags were pass interference calls that looked right. A couple looked generous. Either way, that's a lot of free real estate to hand a semifinal opponent.
It wasn't just flags. West led 21-0 and was driving at the end of the half when Kamden Lopati escaped pressure and threw one he'd like back. Cael Larsen picked it off at the Bountiful 13 with one second left. Late in the third quarter, a West fumble at the Bountiful 34 handed the Redhawks their first real opening.
And the Panthers still won going away. Lopati ran for 96 yards and two touchdowns, threw for 206 more and hit Monson Vaenuku for a 49-yard score early in the fourth. Naeata Hamilton ran for 77 yards and the game's first touchdown.
That's the scary part for Orem. The Panthers brought their B-minus game and won by 17.
Bountiful swung everything it had
Credit Bountiful, because it didn't fold. Jason Freckleton's team, which won the 5A title in 2024, went deep into the playbook. Misdirection. Throwbacks. Double moves.
Maybe too deep. As the afternoon went on, West's defenders stopped biting. They waited out the second action, stayed in their lanes and let a fast front run plays down from behind.
The cruelest moment came in the third quarter. Bountiful put together an 11-play drive all the way to the West 3, then got cute. A pass got tipped, and Takeshi Savery, a 255-pound junior defensive lineman, caught it and rumbled 28 yards the other way. That's a play a defensive lineman tells his grandkids about. It's also one an offensive coordinator tries to forget by Sunday.
Max Feller got behind them, and then it got chippy
Bountiful finally broke through with 14 seconds left in the third. Three plays after that West fumble, Malmrose found Max Feller behind the secondary for a 53-yard touchdown. Feller came in with 39 catches for 615 yards and seven touchdowns, per the Deseret News, and finished Friday with four catches for 91. West blocked the extra point, and it was 21-6.
Then came the play people were still talking about on the walk to the parking lot. Feller was about three yards deep in the end zone and slowing down when West's No. 11 came in late and stepped on the back of his heel. No flag was thrown. Feller stayed down on the Bountiful sideline for about three minutes. A Bountiful teammate who came over to stick up for him was flagged 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct.
From where we sat, watching it live and again on replay, it wasn't a great look. Maybe there's more to it than the replay shows. Who knows.
What it did do was wake up Bountiful's sideline. The coaches let the officials hear about it, and the talking between the two teams picked up for the rest of the afternoon.
The two-point call I'd take back
Malmrose ran it in from 5 yards with 4:13 left to make it 29-12, and Bountiful went for two. The pass didn't connect.
I'll argue with that one. Down 17, kick the extra point and it's a 16-point game: two touchdowns and two two-point conversions. Go for two and miss, and you're still down 17, which two touchdowns can't cover even if you convert both. You've turned a two-score game into a three-score game with four minutes on the clock.
There's a case for going early so you know what you need. With that little time left, you can't afford to need three scores.
West recovered the onside kick at the Bountiful 47. Bountiful got one more shot and drove to the West 26 before the defense stopped it on fourth-and-10 with 15 seconds left. A knee, and the Panthers were headed to the state final.
Orem is waiting for West
West is 13-0 and plays Orem for the 5A title on Friday, Nov. 20. The Tigers beat Woods Cross 56-10 in the other semifinal later Friday afternoon.
West knows exactly what it's walking into. A year ago, in the 5A semifinals at Rice-Eccles, Orem beat West 34-7 and went on to win the state title. Orem has the kind of size that doesn't blink at anybody's, West's included.
Bountiful spent Friday finding out what it's like to fight a heavyweight. Next Friday, West finds out whether it's the heaviest one in the building.
