Timpanogos linebacker Marlee Iosefa (0) holds up the ball after recovering a fumble against Provo in a high school football game on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024
The Provo High football team has faced plenty of adversity this season, so falling behind Timpanogos 14-0 midway through the first quarter was a "well, of course" moment.
The Bulldogs knew what to do: Give the ball to Oliver.
Provo score 35 straight points over the next 2 1/2 quarters and Oliver MacKay rushed for 227 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-25 victory on Friday.
"It was Timpanogos' homecoming," MacKay said. "I kind of wanted to ruin the homecoming. It's always fun to be able to spoil that a little bit, but I'm glad I got the opportunity to come out and play them."
MacKay rushed for 110 yards in the first half as the Bulldogs turned that 14-0 deficit into a 21-14 halftime lead, then scored three times in the third quarter as Provo pushed out to 42-21 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
"A big shout out to my offensive line, they were fighting," MacKay said. "Some of them had a bit of injuries. They're banged up, but they just kept going and kept churning. They're the real heroes tonight."
Timpanogos rallied and closed to 42-35 with 7:40 to play then forced Provo into a third-and-10 moments later. MacKay took a short pass, juked a tackler and sped 32 yards into T-Wolves territory. He scored his fourth touchdown on a 4-yard run with 3:35 to play as the clincher.
"He was phenomenal," Provo coach Kirk Chambers said. "He's fighting for those extra yards to get us first downs, which is huge. We're pretty excited with what he's doing. We're happy we could pound the ball and pull out this game."
The Bulldogs dropped two home games to open the season (Brighton and Olympus) and their game on Sept. 13 with city rival Timpview was cancelled when Timpview students made threats on social media.
MacKay said the first two losses hurt the team morale.
"The biggest thing was the Timpview game," he said. "That was a hard situation. But for me, especially, my love of football came out after that game got cancelled and I think the whole team felt it the next week. We had a really good practice and the energy has just been amazing ever since that game got cancelled."
"We started the year young," Chambers said. "We're starting a really young offensive line, with two sophomores that that have grown a lot just in these four or five weeks. I think that's helped a lot. We've got a lot of guys that are we're counting on to make plays that are also starting to figure things out."
Andrew Hillstead threw touchdown passes to Gabriel Graf (12 yards) and Jameson Jones (53 yards) as Timpanogos took a 14-0 lead with 6:39 to play in the first quarter.
MacKay got things going on the ground on Provo's next drive, setting up Malik Filimoeatu's 1-yard run to get on the board. Bulldog quarterback Gehrig Orchard connected for long touchdown passes to Griffin DeMartini (59 yards) and Bryant Larsen (45 yards), with the Orchard-to-Larsen connection coming with 19.3 seconds to play in the half for a 21-14 advantage.
MacKay was unstoppable in the third quarter, running around and through Timpanogos tacklers at will to score on runs of 2, 8 and 38 yards. The 38-yard run was especially impressive as MacKay took Orchard's handoff and sprinted past a stunned T-Wolves defense for the score.
Timpanogos attempted to mount a comeback behind Hillstead, but the senior quarterback was injured on the last play of the third quarter and left the game. His replacement, freshman Logan Holloway, scored on a quarterback sneak and led the T-Wolves on another scoring drive, capped by a 45-yard touchdown run from Dash McCann, to pull the home team within seven. But that was close at things would get as Provo won its sixth straight game against Timpanogos.
"Our hope was to start faster than we did," Chambers said. "Timpanogos has always been known for having a very potent offense. And boy, they came out and kind of punched us in the mouth, and the boys had to kind of crawl back in. We won the middle of the game, with those two scores at the end of the second quarter and then going and scoring in the third. That's what turned the game in our favor. I felt that after that, we could just really get into our ground game and and let Oliver MacKay carry the ball as well as he did today. We were just loving that. Big game by No. 8 for us today."
Provo (3-2 overall, 2-0 4A Region 8) will host Payson next Friday. Timpanogos (4-2, 1-1) will play at rival Mountain View.