4A Prep football: Déjà Timpview

If anyone was going to stand in the way of Timpview's march to a fourth consecutive state title, it was Mountain Crest. If anyone was going to end the Thunderbirds' stranglehold on Class 4A, it would've been the golden arm of Alex Kuresa.

As Timpview's 38-21 win over Mountain Crest proved, however, it was going to take much more than the dominance of Kuresa to counter the Thunderbirds' overall brilliance. And when it came down to it, the Mustangs, just like every other team in the state, lacked the team depth to take Timpview down.

Because of this, the Thunderbirds, on the strength of a great second half, defeated the Mustangs in Thursday night's Class 4A semifinal matchup at Rice-Eccles Stadium that featured the two

best teams in the classification. And when Timpview takes on Springville in next week's championship game, it will be favored to win by a large margin.

"It never gets old competing for titles," Thunderbirds coach Louis Wong said. "It feels amazing every time we do it. This is a credit to the team, the coaching staff and the players, because we defeated a very good team tonight."

The Thunderbirds did this behind Trevor Brown, who turned in a marvelous all-around performance. The senior quarterback rushed for 187 yards, most of them on quarterback draws, and scored four touchdowns. He threw for another 100 yards and left his imprint on the game throughout the evening.

They did it behind a defense that harassed, hit,

and stayed after Kuresa all night. The junior, who some consider the best quarterback in the state, had a great statistical outing, to be sure. He threw for 375 yards, ran for 27 more, and tossed three touchdown passes -- numbers which for him are almost ordinary.

However, Kuresa was sacked five times, chased relentlessly, and threw two interceptions and lost a fumble.

"Our defense was special tonight," Brown said. "That's probably the most pressure that he's seen all season. You have to give the defense all of the credit. They put up 21 points, and that's half of what they normally put up. We came into this game as an offense trying to score on every possession because we thought we'd need it. But our defense made sure we didn't."

The defense was so good that it forced five Mountain Crest turnovers in six possessions, a development that turned what was a 21-14 game at halftime into a blowout in the fourth quarter.

Offensively, Brown, big and fast, was too much for the Mustang defenders, constantly breaking tackles and then showing breakaway speed once he got out into the open. His running changed the game as the Thunderbirds showed early and often that they couldn't be stopped once they had the

football.

"I thought the offense was wonderful today," Wong said. "Brown was a man. He made the right play calls and the offensive line opened holes for him all day."

tjones@sltrib.com