This is exactly what happened Friday night when Payson’s special teams units shined in its 27-0 road win against Mountain View.

Ahead 7-0 after two quarters of play, Payson’s Ethan Nelson took the kickoff to open the second half back 95 yards to the house to give the Lions a 14-0 lead.

Later in the third quarter, Beau Steinfeldt blocked a Bruin punt to give Payson the ball inside Mountain View Bruin territory at the 30-yard line. Two plays later Kade Edwards found Cooper Swasey on a 28-yard strike. Though the extra point failed, the Lions had built up a commanding 20-0 lead.

“We didn’t start how we wanted to obviously, but we got a spark in the second half and played well in the second half,” said Payson head coach Brian Wall. “We hope they play well the whole game but we’ll take it (the win).”

The Payson defense bent somewhat during the game but didn’t break and the defensive line led by the likes of Steinfeldt, Zayden Cook, Brogen Broderick, and Lincoln Ewell secured some big sacks and pressured Bruin quarterback Sei Lesa all night long.

In the final stanza, Payson then executed a fake punt as punter Logan Russell rolled right and found Brock Craghead on a pass to keep the drive alive.

Edwards then again found Swasey, who put on some shifty moves to avoid Bruin tacklers to score on a 20-yard pass reception for his third touchdown of the night. Russell then split the uprights to give Payson its final margin of victory at 27-0.

Payson’s offense struggled a bit in the first half as the Lions were a victim of three turnovers. Two of those were interceptions by Anthony Burgos and Kalvin Floyd deep in Bruin territory.

Mountain View’s offense was led by the hard running of Dexton Havea and moved the chains enough to keep Payson’s high-octane offense on the sidelines.

But the Lions finally broke through toward the end of the second half as Trevyn Wall spotted Cooper Swasey on a 2-yard connection. Wall, a sophomore, had to come into the game as Edwards was shaken up a bit.

“He (Edwards) just stepped wrong and hurt his knee, but he’s fine,” Brian Wall said. Edwards did return to the game and played well in the second half.

Brian Wall is the fifth head coach the Lion program has had in five years and he hopes to bring some stability to the program. Wall also has two sons in the program with Trevyn and Dylan.

“It was fun to see,” Brian Wall said of his son Trevyn throwing his first touchdown pass in varsity football. “Sometimes it’s hard to coach your own kids, but it’s fun to see (them have success).”

As far as the team goes, Wall really respects the grit his players have shown going through all these coaching changes.

“It’s a great bunch of kids that continue to fight,” said the Lion head coach who said “the game plan” is to coach beyond this year.

Mountain View (1-3, 0-1) will visit Spanish Fork (2-2, 1-0) Friday night while Payson (2-2, 1-0) will hit the road for the third game in a row and take on Salem Hills (2-2, 0-1). Though the Skyhawks were shutout 35-0 by Provo in their region opener, Wall expects a tough game against their rival.

“I think we’re going to need to be disciplined,” Wall said. “They have a good running back (Roper Kay) I know, and they got some talented kids. We got to put in a good game plan and come out and play.”

Nathan Mills, Special to the Herald