- Bountiful's special teams secured a 14-3 win over Farmington with key plays.
- Siaki Fekitoa scored a late touchdown; Aisake Willis blocked a punt and FG.
- Bountiful leads the series 5-3; both teams face non-region opponents next.
FARMINGTON — Football coaches everywhere preach to their teams about all three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams.
After 46 minutes and 53 seconds of game time — late in the fourth quarter — Bountiful led Farmington 7-3, with 5 points coming directly from special teams and another 2 being set up by stellar special teams.
The Redhawks had a field goal and two safeties; the first safety was set up by the punt team downing a punt at the Phoenix 1-yard line, and a second was a blocked punt out of the end zone.
Siaki Fekitoa's short rushing touchdown late was the punctuation on a hard-fought 14-3 win for the Redhawks (1-1) over their non-region rival, where the special teams unit had reason to give itself a pat on the back.
"Really proud of those guys. We preach it like every coach does, and we practice it and ask them to buy in and commit, and the kids do," Bountiful coach Jason Freckleton said. "They own their role, coaches coach them hard. It does win football games."
Bountiful's Aisake Willis, a senior, blocked Jaxon Beynon's punt in the end zone to put the Redhawks up 7-3. Willis was also credited with blocking a 49-yard field goal attempt in the first half, and picked off Farmington's Will Peterson to end the game.
"I'm feeling great. I told my boys I'd do anything I can for them and I'll push myself even harder," Willis said. "It feels amazing. They wanted us to buy in and that's what we all had to do. We were taught today to do our own job, and that's what we did."
Farmington, now in its eighth season playing football, has played only one school in each of those eight seasons: Bountiful. The Redhawks have a 5-3 series edge in the teams' budding rivalry.
The teams were tied 3-3 at halftime, thanks to field goals from Beynon and Bountiful's Cooper Coleman punctuating what, at times, was a flag fest.
Willis had blocked the earlier field goal, while Farmington's Kava Fiefia wrestled the ball from Bountiful's Mason Tidwell for an interception in the end zone to stop a Redhawks drive. Farmington's Maxwell Racker got two first-half sacks.
Arguably the next most exciting thing in the first half happened midway through the second quarter, when the Farmington student section passed a brown couch —yes, a couch — all the way up the stands, much to the students' excitement and school administrators' chagrin.
The second half was, once again, a defensive slog. Bountiful went ahead 5-3 with a safety, stuffing Farmington (1-1) in its own end zone with 10:09 left in the third quarter.
Farmington's Tanner Nielsen and Ty Runyan grabbed interceptions in the third quarter, but Bountiful's defense forced the Phoenix offense right back to the sideline both times.
After Willis' blocked punt went out of the end zone for a 7-3 lead, both offenses stalled out on respective drives. Bountiful's Lakepa Satuala broke up a Farmington fourth-down pass, and the Redhawks' offense finally found a breakthrough. Fekitoa rushed for 40 yards down to the 1-yard line before punching in a deserved touchdown on the next play.
Farmington faces Mountain View (Idaho), American Fork and Lone Peak to round out non-region play. Bountiful hosts Syracuse, Morgan and Park City before beginning its Region 6 schedule on Sept. 19.
