HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

When recounting the frenetic contest from which his team emerged victorious, a bewildered but relieved Bear Lake head coach Ryan Messerly quoted the late New York Yankees Hall of Famer and renowned quip machine Yogi Berra:

"It's deja vu all over again."

The Bear Lake Bears punched their ticket to the 2A title game Saturday afternoon in Holt Arena, prevailing in a thrilling 2827 overtime victory against the vaunted West Side Pirates.

On Sept. 23, the Bears handed the Pirates their first loss in two years in a contest that also ended with the Bears winning 28-27 in overtime. The uncanny similarities don't end there.

As was the case two months prior, the Pirates and Bears headed to overtime, knotted at 21.

The Pirates received the ball first and scored right away on a Parker Moser 10-yard run. However, their 2-point conversion run attempt was stuffed at the 1-yard-line. The Bears' drive began at the 5 after an illegal substitution on West Side, but ran for no gain twice and threw an incompletion. One more stop and the Pirates' single loss in two years would be avenged and their comeback would be complete.

Bear Lake quarterback Tayson Neal had other plans.

Neal took the snap on the final down of the game and calmly threw a back shoulder fade to Bryson Crane, who hauled in the pass despite heavy interference from two Pirate defenders. As much of the offense that came from Neal's and, it was actually a foot that sealed the game for Bear Lake, with the extra point handing the Bears the final margin.

In Saturday's contest, the Bears looked sensational on the opening drive, with senior quarterback Tayson Neal completing a 43yard dart to Bryson Crane on the second play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Neal hit Bears receiver Toby Flake in stride for a 36-yard touchdown pass at the 9:53 mark of the first quarter. Neal further demonstrated his deep-ball talent in the second quarter, launching a 55-yard touchdown pass to Flake early in the frame and finding Crane for a 34-yard touchdown with 4 minutes left in the half.

Conversely, the Pirates came away with no points in the first quarter, their single, run-heavy drive that chewed up most of the first quarter clock ending with a turnover on downs.

Down 13-0 and desperate to keep the deficit manageable, Moser ran like a man possessed on the following possession. Moser first set up the Pirates with prime field position following a 50-yard kickoff return. Moser then caught a pass for 10 yards and rushed twice, the second going for 22 hard-earned yards and finding the end zone, halving the deficit to 13-7 after a successful extra point kick.

Bear Lake didn't take long to answer, with Neal's aforementioned 34yard touchdown pass to Toby Flake coming just three football minutes after Moser's score. The Pirates had a sustained drive in the closing seconds of the second half, marching the ball down to the Bear Lake 23-yard line, but Bear Lake blew up the next play, heading into halftime with a 20-7 lead.

Fortunately for the Pirates, the second halves of each respective game mirrored each other as well.

Just as in the earlier contest, the Pirate defense came alive, holding the Bears scoreless for the entire second half. The Pirates also failed to score in the third quarter, taking the same 21-7 deficit into the 4th quarter.

Following an efficient, run-heavy drive in the third quarter that brought the Pirates to the goal line at the close of the third quarter, Easton Shurtliff rumbled into the end zone from 3 yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter. The extra point hit the right upright however, leaving the Bears with an 8-point lead.

Neal inexplicably went ice cold in the fourth quarter, completing just one of six passes and allowing the Pirates one final drive in the waning minutes of the game to attempt to even up the one-score game.

Pirates quarterback Eli Brown orchestrated a gutsy drive atypical of normal West Side fashion, relying primarily on his arm to move the Pirates downfield. On a do-or-die 4th and 10, Brown found wideout Colby Bowles for a crucial 31-yard gain. With less than a minute to go and on the Bear Lake 11-yard line, the Pirates converted another 4th down on a Shurtliff run. After two incompletions and a short run that chewed up all but 10 seconds of the game clock, Brown threw a picture-perfect 4th down pass to Garrett Robinson in the corner of the end zone, elating the Pirate faithful and bringing the Pirates within two. One Shurtliff rumble later, the Pirates tied the game.

"I don't even know right now, to be honest with you," Messerly said of his feelings immediately after the game. "We've gotten to this spot a couple times in the last 5-6 years and we finally got over the hump."

The hump Messerly referred to was the stranglehold West Side had on the 2A conference, which the Bears were able to break at last thanks to two eerily similar games.

The final hurdle for the Bears will be Firth, who they will face next weekend.