ST. GEORGE – Most people showed up for the Pine View-Orem game expecting a lot of offense from both teams. They were half right.
The Panthers compiled more than 500 yards offensively and ran away with a 42-14 victory over the Tigers Friday night at Panther Stadium.
“I am surprised at it cause that’s a good football team,” Pine View coach Ray Hosner said. “They have some very good players, but we handled them pretty well.”
Kody Wilstead had five touchdown passes and Tristan Duran ran for 123 yards as Pine View seemingly scored at will.
But the game was supposed to be a shootout between two great offenses. The Tigers did not hold up their end of the bargain. After striking first on a short TD dive by running back James Wadsworth five minutes into the game, Orem watched helplessly as the Panthers reeled off 42 unanswered points over the next three quarters. A lot of the damage was done on the ground, with Duran bursting through gaping holes.
“I love it,” said Duran, who rushed for one score and caught a pass for another. “There were a lot of big holes to run through. The line did a great job.”
Pine View cut it to 7-6 on Duran’s first score, a 15-yard swing pass out of the backfield that Duran caught in full stride and raced around the edge. That came at the 4:33 mark of the first quarter. He gave the Panthers the lead less than two minutes later on a 3-yard trap play, making it 12-7.
In the second quarter, Wilstead scrambled around, directing receivers like a traffic cop, and found Colton Miller in the back corner of the end zone from 13 yards out to make it 19-7 with 5:30 to go in the half.
The Pine View had perhaps the defining moment in the game. Orem drove deep into Pine View territory, but stalled. The Tigers pooch-kicked it to the Pine View 2-yard line with 1:22 until halftime. Wilstead handed to Duran on the first play and the back gained just a yard. With the clock rolling, the Pine View QB tossed a screen to Duran, who turned it into a 34-yard gain. With the ball out to the 37, the Panthers elected to work the two-minute drill. Duran had another nice run and Wilstead scrambled and found Jack Bangerter with a perfectly placed spiral over the defender for a touchdown and a 26-7 lead.
Bangerter, the senior wide receiver who leads the team, and likely the state, in receiving, cradled the ball as the clock read :09. The 98-yard drive took a mere 62 seconds.
“He throws such a nice ball, it’s easy to catch,” Bangerter said.
Wilstead finished with 310 yards on 19 for 34 passing and the aforementioned five TDs. Bangerter, who had 10 catches last week, caught seven balls for 118 yards and two more TDs.
The Panthers finished with 545 yards on 52 plays, an average of 10.7 yards a play. Bladen Hosner contributed 70 yards receiving and a nice TD catch late in the third quarter that made it 40-7. A bad snap on a punt early in the fourth pushed it to 42-7 before Orem’s backups scored a late TD on Pine View’s reserves.
In two games this season, Pine View has already gained more than 1,000 yards and scored 80 points.
The Panthers, 2-0 overall, play at 1-1 Lehi next Friday.
Boxscore/stats: orepv83013
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @oldschoolag
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.