LEHI — Herriman's dream of an undefeated season didn't rest on the reliable legs of Filisi Filipe or the offensive line that paved the way to his two touchdowns.
But Tyler Messer was up to the challenge.
The senior quarterback connected with Payton Wassom for a 20-yard touchdown with 30 seconds left, and Kingston Mamea blocked a field goal as time expired to keep Herriman's dream alive with a 22-21 road win Friday night over Lehi.
After checking out of his initial read, Messer spun away from a tackle and started to do what he had done several times that game: run for a first down. But out of the corner of his eye, he saw Wassom, who was wide open in the middle of the field — and with a clear path to the end zone.
"I threw it with fearlessness, took a risk," said Messer, who admitted he "wasn't sure" that Wassom lunged over the goal line until the referees signaled for a touchdown. "I knew I wanted to throw to him when I got out; I just had to wait for him to come back in."
The Mustangs (7-0) were forced to rally after Lehi rallied back from a 16-0 halftime deficit and a first half in which the visitors controlled all of the momentum — and all but two minutes of of the first quarter, offensively.
But recent BYU commit Devaughn Eka opened the third quarter with a 71-yard scoring run, backup quarterback Wyatt Bingham found PJ Takitaki for another, and BYU-bound Legend Glasker gave the Pioneers (3-3) their first lead of the game with a 16-yard touchdown off a reverse with 3:12 remaining.
But that was plenty of time for Messer, who led a 12-play, 74-yard drive in the final minutes before finding the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Wassom for a touchdown in his second consecutive game.
"We just had to lift each other up like we've done all year," Messer said. "We just pick each other up, no one gets down on each other, focus, no stupid penalties, and lock in."
Even after all that, Lehi still had a chance to take the win in front of a homecoming crowd.
But Mamea surged out of his four-point stance, shot through the gap as time expired, and put his hands up at Lehi kicker Bode Hammond's attempt from 57 yards out to finish off the comeback in dramatic fashion to push the Mustangs to their 7-0 start.
"Barbecue chicken from there," Mamea said.
"The first half was all defense," he added. "But we could have never done what we did without our offense. They came out, and showed out, and we gave all props to them. We let them down in the second half, but they came up and I'm grateful that we could stop the field-goal block for them."
