High school football: Viewmont edges Bountiful in overtime rivalry thriller

BOUNTIFUL — For almost three hours Friday night, the Viewmont High School campus was not the sleepy neighborhood suburb it is normally assumed to be.

In a battle of 5A unbeatens, the Vikings took over in the second half and rallied to beat rival Bountiful 30-27 in double overtime in front of a near-capacity crowd.

Blake Moore’s 10-yard touchdown run in the second overtime secured Viewmont’s fourth win already this season and ended a losing streak to Bountiful that had lasted since 2018.

“We didn’t do anything different. We let the kids handle it,” said Viewmont coach Andru Jones. “We just told them, ‘You need to step up and make plays. This is the time. You do it now and it will last forever.’”

Bountiful seemingly had the win secured. Quarterback Emerson Geilman led the third-ranked Redhawks on four impressive first-half drives that each ended in touchdowns.

After intermission, though, everything changed.

Titan Longson, a Woods Cross transfer, was the primary instigator. The strong-armed lefthander threw for 303 yards and two touchdowns, and Drez Johnson had 11 catches for 160 yards. They combined to help Viewmont rally from a 27-13 halftime deficit.

Longson may have felt like a hero but was quick to praise the Vikings’ defense, which avoided embarrassment by forcing a missed field goal, a punt, a fourth-down incompletion and then continued to stifle Bountiful in overtime with a fumble recovery and an interception.

“They had us but then our defense stepped up and all I had to do was throw the ball,” said Longson, who completed 12 of 20 passes for 181 yards in the second half.

“We kept stopping them, and we just jumped on that and got back in the game. This was a great victory. It’s been a long time since we beat them.”

In the third quarter, Longson recovered from two quarterback sacks to lead an 89-yard, 8-play drive that ended with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Kingston Mickens.

The PAT failed, but the Vikings’ defense held again and that allowed Longson to engineer another drive — 80 yards on 15 plays — that made the game interesting when he found teammate Cache Tuia open in the end zone on a fourth-down play.

A missed extra-point kick forced the Vikings to go for a two-point conversion with 2:36 left. Longson got the snap, scrambled to his left and fired a strike to Mickens again to thrill the home crowd and tie the game.

Bountiful, which came in with wins over perennial powers Herriman, Farmington and Olympus, again couldn’t find any offensive consistency as Geilman completed just one pass (for four yards) and the drive ended with four straight incompletions from near midfield.

Utah’s high-school overtimes are governed by the “Kansas Playoff” rule, which gives each team the ball at the opponent’s 25-yard line. Viewmont got the ball first but Longson was stopped on a fourth-down run. Bountiful’s excitement was almost immediately stopped when Cooper Willougby forced a fumble on the Redhawks’ first play.

In the second extra session, Geilman’s pass to the goal line was intercepted by Viewmont’s Zach Anderson. The Vikings took the ball and Benji Tolman carried a horde of Bountiful defenders on a 15-yard run and Moore took the next handoff and didn’t stop until he fell over the goal line.

With the win, Viewmont moved to 4-0 overall and 1-0 in Region 5. The Vikings, who steamrolled their first three opponent by a combined score of 128-25 now have the “signature” win Jones said they needed.

Viewmont began last year with a 2-1 mark but a 28-27 loss at Bountiful started a five-game losing streak.

“This is all for the kids,” Jones said. “They’re the wins that did it and they deserve (the recognition).”