High school football: Brighton stuns Olympus with improbable 5A quarterfinal comeback

An improbable comeback, two unlikely heroes, a game-winning field goal, postgame pepper spray and no postgame handshake.
That about sums up the final eight minutes of Brighton’s stunning 17-14 win over Olympus in the 5A quarterfinals on Friday.
Better circle the rematch on the 2025 calendar now because the hype and buildup to that game will be intense after what transpired in the fourth quarter at Brighton.
For all intents and purposes, Brighton was toast early in the fourth, down 14-0 with no effective way to move the ball offensively with its third string quarterback.
It had tried to run a Wildcat offense most of the game to wear down the Titans defense, but the visitors weren’t budging. With eight minutes left and their season on the line, Brighton’s coaches removed the proverbial training wheels from sophomore QB Preston Ferran.
He proceeded to lead the team on two quick scoring drives over a five minute span, which ultimately set the stage for Thomas Sorenson to boot a game-winning 31-yard field goal as time expired.
“It’s incredible. I’ve never felt anything like it, having the whole community being with you, just running out, just feeling the pressure in the moment,” said Sorenson.
Ferran was 0-4 passing through the first three quarters, but given a chance to lead his team he completed 6 of 10 passes for 131 yards.
“We were just trying to beat them up physically the whole game, and then when they got up 14, we were like screw it, let’s go score, so we just came out throwing,” said Ferran.
With the win, No. 3 Brighton advances to the 5A semifinals at the University of Utah on Friday against No. 2 seed Bountiful.
“Our team this whole year, just resilient, toughness, adversity, like every single time they answer, and I’m just really proud of them. Can’t believe it man. Crazy. Then our Thomas Sorenson drills a kick. He’s been struggling. Drills the kick to win the game. Surreal,” said Brighton coach Casey Sutera.
Brighton’s celebration was marred briefly with a postgame scuffle near midfield following Sorenson’s kick. Several police officers quickly intervened before things escalated too quickly, with pepper spray being used to break things up.
Sutera said some ended up in his mouth as he tried to break things up. Administrators for both schools elected not to have the players have a postgame handshake as a result.
Sutera said he felt bad things had to end that way without a customary postgame handshake.
“I didn’t actually see, I was crying and celebrating with my team, and I looked over and there was a scuffle. I’m disappointed that happened. I think I got sprayed going to break it up with pepper spray cause there’s something in my mouth,” said Sutera.
“I know it’s heated. We respect Olympus, we respect coach (Brandon) Burt and their team. I don’t think that’s any reflection of them, but right now this is a pretty heated rivalry and we just needed to separate.”
Going into the game, Brighton knew that without much of an offense, it would need to lean heavily on its defense to beat an Olympus team it lost to 13-0 back in region play when it had a healthy starting quarterback.
It hoped giving the ball repeatedly to running back Mason Haertel might be the winning formula. He finished the game with 40 carries for 124 yards.
The winning formula didn’t happen until Ferran was allowed to cut it loose.
None of that would’ve been possible had Brighton’s defense kept things relatively close. It forced two turnovers and limited Olympus to 252 yards of offense.
It wasn’t a perfect game defensively though, as Olympus’ James Schlendorf scored on a 17-yard run late in the first quarter to put the Titans up 7-0. Caden Lloyd then caught a 44-yard TD pass from Max Rice early in the first quarter for the 14-0 lead.
At the time, it seemed like Brighton now had to scale a Mount Everest-type hurdle to fight back into the game.
Even after going down 14-0, Brighton’s offense still sputtered as its next three drives ended with a punt, interception and another punt with a grand total of four passes on 19 plays — and the only completion was on a trick play.
In a bizarre twist, Brighton’s fortunes flipped almost immediately after Olympus missed a long field goal try with eight minutes left in the game.
Ferran connected with Slade Taylor for a 25-yard completion, then Sam Storrs for another 25 completion and then Taylor again for 21 yards and suddenly it was first and goal in a blink.
Brighton went back to pounding the rock, with Beau La Fleur powering his way into the end zone from two yards, cutting the deficit to 14-7 with 6:26 remaining.
Brighton forced a quick punt, but on Ferran’s first two passes he couldn’t replicate the magic with two completions, one of which was nearly intercepted.
That’s when Cash Gay stood on his head in a wild three-play sequence.
Brighton’s leading receiver hadn’t caught a pass since Oct. 10 as he’d been relegated to a glorified blocker, but in crunch time he made three clutch receptions.
The first came on a sliding third and 10 catch despite being surrounded by four Olympus defenders. His second catch was on a simple 5-yard out, and his last on a 35-yard tippy-toe catch on the sideline that set the Bengals up with first and goal again.
Haertel muscled his way into the end zone tying the game at 14-14 with a ton of time remaining at 3:32.
“That’s a great job by a sophomore quarterback that we put in a position to have to go win the game and do it when they knew we were going to have to throw. Like, that’s a big time effort by him,” said Sutera.
Neither team picked up a first down on their next possession, as the wild excitement of Brighton’s comeback started to dissipate as overtime seemed inevitable as Olympus’ final drive started to stall.
When Olympus only picked up six yards on a third and 10 pass at midfield, the coaches decided to gamble and try to convert the fourth down instead of punting and playing for overtime. It backfired as the ref ruled the Max Rice’s pass was caught out of bounds.
“When we really needed them at the end, they got the stop, we got the momentum back,” said Sutera.
With the turnover on downs, Brighton took over at the 49 with 26 seconds remaining.
Pass interference moved the ball 15 yards closer on first down, and then La Fleur scrambled 13 more yards down to the 21 yard with 6.8 seconds remaining.
After a timeout, Brighton’s coaches trotted out Sorenson — whose 32-yard field goal in the first quarter was blocked — to try to win it for the Bengals.
Olympus was called for offsides on Sorenson’s 36-yard field goal that hit the upright, but from five yards closer he split the upright on a perfect 31-yard game winning field goal.
“I’m just thinking I got it, I’ve got it now, and so I just go back up there, keep my head down, follow through. I didn’t even see if it went in, just perfectly through and turnover,” said Sorenson.