High school football: Resilient Provo rallies past Spanish Fork to seize control of Region 8

Box score

Provo only led once in Friday night’s region showdown against Spanish Fork, but it came when it mattered most.

The Bulldogs scored 30 points in the second half, including 20 in the fourth quarter, to rally for the 46-42 victory to extend its winning streak to five straight after an 0-2 start to the season.

With two games remaining in the regular season, Provo is in the driver’s seat for a repeat Region 8 championship.

“It’s a good indication of where we are going into the playoffs,” said Provo coach Kirk Chambers. “This is a team we want to push in the playoffs. We haven’t had a push in a long, long time here at Provo High and we’re hoping this is the team to do it.”

Provo quarterback Gehrig Orchard had a monster game in engineering the comeback as he threw for 448 yards and five touchdowns to five different receivers.

His performance helped offset a dominant offensive performance from Spanish Fork’s Kaden Vest, who rushed for 333 yards and three touchdowns.

Spanish Fork always seemed to be in control led by Vest’s explosive plays in the backfield, but Chambers thought his players remained resilient throughout.

“We talked at halftime that we really haven’t had a chance to prove ourselves and come back and win a game. Those are big wins you have to have in a season where you hope to go deep in the playoffs. It showed our team’s fortitude, it showed the team’s resolve. I’m just proud. I’m really proud to be a Bulldog tonight,” said Chambers.

Spanish Fork led 28-16 at the half as it scored touchdowns on four of five offensive possessions. Provo made a push in the third quarter cutting the lead to 28-26, but Spanish Fork responded with back-to-back TDs, extending the lead to 42-26 early in the fourth quarter.

It was Vest’s 75-yard TD run — his second TD of 70-plus yards — that stretched the lead to 16 at the 11:37 mark of the fourth quarter to seemingly put the game out of reach.

Chambers simply reminded his team that the message was from halftime still applied. There was plenty of time to still score points and get stops defensively.

Both came up huge. Defensively, after Spanish Fork’s back-to-back TDs late in the third and early in the fourth, its last four drives ended in interception, punt, downs and downs.

Provo’s offense capitalized. It cut the lead to 42-32 at the 10:34 mark as Oliver MacKay took a swing pass from Orchard and raced 56 yards into the end zone by weaving through the defense. Provo failed to convert the two-point conversion, and still found itself trailing by two possessions.

Orchard was clearly starting to find his groove in the fourth quarter, and it didn’t take long for Provo’s defense to get him the ball again as safety Crew DeMartini intercepted a pass to set his offense up with great field position.

Two plays later, Orchard hit Ronnie Wright on a TD pass to make it a 42-39 game with 8:09 remaining.

“We felt that we could pass protect and give Gehrig time to go, and we felt our guys downfield were doing a good job of getting open,” Chambers said.

Needing a drive to settle things down, Spanish Fork’s offense only picked up one first down before punting back to Provo with a ton of time still on the clock.

Orchard needed less than 75 seconds though to give Provo its first lead of the game as he connected with DeMartini on a 60-yard TD pass with 4:11 remaining in the game.

Provo’s defense took care of business from there, holding the Dons to just one first down in their final two drives.

“We came out in the second half fired up. I felt like our defense really stepped it up that second half. Defense wins championships,” said Orchard. “Everyone is going to know that Provo High football can play. We might’ve started out not as hard as we should, but we’re getting better and better.”