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PROVO — Jaylon Vickers traded in last season’s blue uniform of Bingham for the red and white of East High School.
And he couldn’t have started off much better in it.
Vickers scored two touchdowns, a pick-six in the first quarter and a 50-yard TD reception in the second, and added another interception to help the Leopards roll by host Timpview 42-10 on the opening night of the 2017 high school football season.
“I give credit to my teammates and coaches, too. It was a dream for all of us,” said Vickers, whose father works at East. “To be honest, I just wanted to win. That’s all — or that’s the main thing. Just win.”
After the Thunderbirds (0-1) held East to a 3-and-out on their first series, Vickers and the defensive backfield took matters into their own hands. The 6-foot, 175-pound senior jumped a route, came down with two hands on an intercepted pass from Timpview quarterback Isaiah Ramos, and sprinted nearly 70 yards into the end zone for the opening score with 39 seconds left in the first quarter.
“I read what the receivers were doing, and I just jumped the route,” Vickers said. “He pretty much gave it to me.”
On East’s next series, quarterback Ben Ford fueled the Leopards’ vaunted triple-option offense to soften up the line of scrimmage — then hit Vickers with a wide-open pass over the middle for a 50-yard touchdown that led to a 14-0 halftime lead for East (1-0).
“Ben threw the ball really well, didn’t he? He can throw,” said East coach Brandon Matich, whose team won back-to-back Class 4A titles before moving up to the newly created 6A in the latest realignment cycle. “We saw some things they were doing defensively, and we knew those vertical routes would be open. We took a shot, and it worked out for us.”
A few more angles of Jaylen Vickers big night thanks to @borysfx#kslsportspic.twitter.com/f8RlZOu218
— Matthew L Glade (@matthewLksl) August 18, 2017
From there, it was off to the races.
Ford completed 4 of 8 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns, and Sione Molisi added 101 yards rushing and two scores on the ground.
East scored on its first four drives of the second half, including a drive that consisted of four runs of 14 or more yards before Molisi’s 8-yard touchdown gave the Leopards a 35-3 lead with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.
Charlie Vincent hauled in a 59-yard touchdown reception from Ford, and Viliami Tausinga supplied a 25-yard interception off a tipped pass to put the Leopards up 42-3 early in the fourth quarter.
“Timpview gave us a lot of stress and a lot of heartache; we didn’t know what we were going to get,” said Matich, who credited his defensive assistants for the game plan. “They’ve got a new offensive coordinator and a new quarterback, and we didn’t know if it would be a new system.
“To do what they did defensively was a phenomenal team effort.”
Luke Simpson kicked a 30-yard field goal to open the scoring for Timpview, and Ramos scored on a 2-yard run with 6:50 left in the fourth quarter for the Thunderbirds, who play at American Fork at 7 p.m. MDT Aug. 25.
East plays at reigning 5A champion Bingham next week in a must-see in-state clash before traveling to Saguaro, Arizona, on Sept. 1. The Leopards don’t play a home game until Sept. 15 against Taylorsville.
