Football Preview: Maple Mountain Golden Eagles vs. Timpview Thunderbirds
It'll be Battle of the Birds when Golden Eagles challenges the Timpview Thunderbirds at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. The two teams are strolling into their matchups after big wins in their previous games.
Maple Mountain will bounce into Thursday's contest after beating Springville, who they hadn't topped in nine consecutive meetings. Maple Mountain blew past Springville 41-14 at home on Friday. Considering the Golden Eagles have won three matches by more than 22 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
A big part of Maple Mountain's victory came down to the chemistry between Sawyer Leifson and his top target Derek Morehouse. Leifson gained 54 total yards and two touchdowns while Morehouse picked up 97 receiving yards. The dominant performance also gave Leifson a new career-high in rushing yards.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Maple Mountain was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 261 rushing yards. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Springville only rushed for 58.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Timpview). They took their game on the road on Friday with ease, bagging a 48-14 win over Wasatch. Given the Thunderbirds' advantage in MaxPreps' Utah football rankings (they are ranked fourth, while the Wasps are ranked 55th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
It was another big night for Carson Rasmussen, who threw for 319 yards and five touchdowns while picking up 10.6 yards per attempt, and also rushed for 38 yards and a touchdown. Zedekiah Anahu-Ambrosio was Rasmussen's top target, picking up 98 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Maple Mountain pushed their record up to 7-1 with the victory, which was their sixth straight at home dating back to last season. As for Timpview, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 4-2.
Maple Mountain suffered a grim 42-20 defeat to Timpview in their previous meeting back in October of 2023. Can Maple Mountain avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps