Washington Terrace » Bonneville football's theme of "Make Doubters Believers" gained credibility as the Lakers took Bountiful out of the Class 4A football playoffs 14-7 in a tense overtime showdown Friday.

The Bonneville players exploded with emotion as they celebrated their turnaround victory.

"I'm so excited for the boys," Lakers coach Matt Williams said. "They've worked hard for this one. To hold the Bountiful team to seven points is amazing."

The Lakers trailed the Braves 7-0 for much of the game, certain to be knocked out of the tournament, until finally the Lakers' Sage Stireman caught a 21-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter.

That's when the fun began. Both Bonneville and Bountiful had touchdowns rescinded due to penalties in overtime.

Finally, Stireman caught an 11-yard touchdown pass which put Bonneville ahead on the scoreboard for the first time.

"It's indescibable. People thought we'd be run over by Bountiful," Stireman said. "Something told me we'd come through. We showed up and wanted to win."

The Braves were the first to score when running back Ben Lemon ran for a 16-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

Defense for both teams took over as the second and third quarters failed to put any numbers on the scoreboard.

"My defense will get the game ball," said Williams.

Bonneville quarterback Manaia Filiaga said

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that the Lakers limped along for the first three quarters.

"We had a rough start. We did finally get it back together in the fourth quarter." Still, he asserts that his team has a lot of heart and "played better than they did."

In short

It took a while, but Bonneville wins in overtime.