Utah high school football: Provo surprises Olympus

HOLLADAY — Provo football coach Kirk Chambers is expecting big things from his team this year.

He especially expects big things from Drew Deucher. The senior running back/defensive back came through Friday night, and so did several of his teammates as the Bulldogs beat Olympus, rallying for a 21-20 victory in a nonregion game on the Titans’ new artificial-surface field.

Deucher caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Sokai Aston in the first half, then he made the play of the game when he took an option pitch from Aston with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, rolled to his right and lofted a long pass to Bryant Larsen.

Larsen got behind the Olympus secondary and outraced a pair of defenders to finish a 66-yard play.

Jonah Loosli’s extra-point kick made the difference to help Provo improve to 2-0 so far this season.

After beating Grantsville 41-0 in its opener, the Bulldogs now have a chance to show if they can be a 5A power with a showdown against perennial rival Timpview at home next week.

“Last week was what we expected to do,” said Chambers. “Our big theme this week has been to overcome. We knew we would need to against a team with a tradition like Olympus. We didn’t get off to such a good start, but we kept it close and made the plays at the end.”

Deucher’s pass may have been the most memorable play, but he said the Bulldogs still needed their defense to keep Olympus frustrated at the end.

The Titans moved across midfield in the final minute, but two running plays and a pair of passes from Chase Moseley to Ty Seagle only netted a few yards, so coach Brandon Burt sent kicker Asher Gubler on the field to try to win it.

The snap was fine, but Provo’s defense penetrated the line and Gubler’s 52-yard attempt was blocked by Kyle Larsen, a 6-foot-2 leaper.

After that, the demoralized Titans dropped to 1-1 with a series of tough games ahead — Bountiful, West, Brighton, East and Alta.

Olympus’ hopes may have been brighter if Deucher’s prayers hadn’t been answered Friday.

“I play baseball, so I can throw (the ball),” he said. “I had the option to either run or throw and I saw Bryant downfield. He looked covered up from where I could see, but we’ve worked on the play in practice, so I just threw it and said a prayer.”

Larsen was actually open by several yards, and after gathering the ball in stride, he ran another 30 yards past his screaming teammates on the bench to silence Olympus’ home crowd.

The Titans, though, have only themselves to blame. They took a 13-0 lead on a pair of Gubler field goals and a fumble recovery in the end zone by Gabe Johnson.

Mosely added a 7-yard scoring run just before halftime to give Olympus plenty of momentum, but the Titans were blanked afterward.

Olympus had several poor quarterback snaps, a couple of dropped passes and Mosely was sacked on an important third-down play that moved the Titans out of field-goal range, which could have made a difference.