Recognizing teachers: A cool thing that Mountain View does at all its athletic contests is recognize its teachers.

Two athletes playing in that contest nominate a teacher that has been instrumental in their lives, and at halftime, Mountain View teacher Cassie Whitaker (Math, Physical Education) was recognized for her efforts by wide receiver Ty Mullen, while Todd Lindsay (Digital Learning) was recognized by lineman Samson Maunga.

This is a nice touch, and if other schools aren’t already doing this, it would be great if they followed Mountain View’s example.

Tevita Valeti back on top: After going scoreless last week against 4A Crimson Cliffs, Valeti found the end zone three times in Springville’s 46-0 shutout of Cyprus on Friday. He now has 13 touchdowns rushing and is tied with San Juan’s Zack Conway.

But there are other area players on the leaderboard. Wasatch’s Carter Bucad has eight touchdowns while ALA’s Kannon Huntsman has crossed the goal line seven times for the Eagles.

Bucad also is third overall in the state in rushing yards with 575 yards on 77 carries for an eye-popping 7.5 yards per carry average. Valeti is sixth with 520 yards on 80 carries at 6.5 yards per attempt while Huntsman is 20th with 338 yards on 46 carries at 7.3 yards per rush.

Fifth in the state in yards per carry is Maple Mountain quarterback Banks Jackson. The senior signal caller has 45 carries for 365 yards or 8.2 yards per clip.

Skyridge’s Jackson Stevens playing well for the Falcons: Skyridge got a nice move-in transfer when Stevens arrived after playing two years at Davis High. It took just four games for Stevens to amass over 1000 yards passing for the Falcons. Stevens has 1006 yards passing with 76 completions in 115 attempts. He also has 14 touchdown passes in four games.

Stevens’ teammate Elijah Elliss has seven touchdowns receiving, tied for second most in the state. Wasatch’s Jojo Hyer also has seven receiving scores.

Also of note are quarterbacks Jett Niu of Lehi and Lone Peak’s Jackson Blake who have tossed for 13 and 12 touchdowns respectively.

Valley ball hawks and sack machines: Among the state leaders in interceptions is Cedar Valley’s Jaxin Monson with three. Salem Hill’s Christian Miller is tied for fourth in the state with five sacks while his teammate Alex Cloward has four. Trevyn Gates, a state champion wrestler from Pleasant Grove, also has registered four sacks for the Vikings.

Bulldog defense continues to stifle opponents: In boys basketball, Provo was known for its suffocating defense and plenty of championship teams. However, on the gridiron, the Bulldogs are getting it done with two shutouts in four games including a 35-0 win to open up league play against Salem Hills.

The Bulldogs have yielded a Utah County low 41 points in its four games, and one of the touchdowns allowed came via a fumble recovery in the end zone by Olympus.

Springville’s defense has also been stout, just giving up 43 points in its four games including one shutout. Meanwhile, Pleasant Grove’s defense isn’t too far behind yielding just 49 points with a shutout victory to their credit.

Lighting up the scoreboard: Timpanogos has scored a Utah Valley high 188 points in its four games or scoring 47 points per game. Timpanogos has gone over 50 points twice and scored 62 points in a win against Jordan.

Up there in points scored as well are 6A defending champs Skyridge with 164, while its Region 3 rival American Fork has scored 161 points. It shouldn’t be surprising that the Falcons also lead the valley in point differential scoring 99 more points than their opponents over their first four games.

A special night for Timpanogos’ Parker Harvey and Chase Riggs: Timpanogos’ Parker Harvey scored 16 points with seven successful extra point attempts, a 33-yard field goal and then hauling in a 7-yard pass to complete the Timberwolf scoring barrage as Timpanogos handily beat hapless Tooele, 52-10.

Timpanogos also welcomed back Chase Riggs at quarterback and the Timberwolf signal caller tossed five touchdown passes.

In Riggs’ absence, Timpanogos turned to the incredibly athletic Luke Livingston to man the position. But now Livingston can return to his wide receiver position where he can still terrorize opponents. This season, so far, Livingston has passed for four touchdowns, rushed for four touchdowns and caught another.

Making that Idaho trip: For the second straight week, Rigby, Idaho, hosted a Utah team, and again, it didn’t go well. American Fork provided the beatdown as the Cavemen stormed to a 41-7 halftime lead on its way to a 50-7 victory. Rigby actually scored the first touchdown and then saw American Fork rip off 50 straight points. Dylan Storey tossed three touchdown passes while Jacob Eardley ran in three more scores.

Big Game of the Week No. 1: With no football field on its campus, Timpview (2-2) takes to the road for the fifth straight week to take on Springville (3-1). Though it’s the first game of 5A Region 7 play, this appears to be the game that will likely decide the league title. Springville will have to hope Tevita Valeti can have a big game on the ground and keep Timpview’s high-octane offense off the field.

Big Game of the Week No. 2: The Orem Tigers (1-3) have had some hard luck losing quarterback Lance Reynolds III to an injury and then losing two straight games at home in overtime. All four of Orem’s games have been decided by one score or less and now Wasatch (1-3) comes to town equally desperate for a victory.

Big Game of the Week No. 3: Payson (2-2, 1-0) opened up 4A Region 8 with a nice 27-0 shutout of Mountain View, while Salem Hills (2-2, 0-1) failed to scratch a point in a 35-0 defeat against Provo. The big question is if Salem Hills’ more demanding early-season schedule has better prepared the Skyhawks in a game between these two heated rivals.

Extra points: San Juan and Lehi extended their winning streaks to 29 and 23 games respectively … Student sections often put together some interesting cheers. And some of them are very ill-timed. Two weeks ago as the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, Mater Dei, California, sprinted out onto the field, they were serenaded with the cheer “overrated” by the Bingham students. The Monarchs then went to spank the home team, 48-14 … Two teams outside Utah County and Corner Canyon that might challenge Region 3 for 6A supremacy are Syracuse (4-0) and Mountain Ridge (4-0). Syracuse has outscored its opponents 141-27, while Mountain Ridge recently knocked off Lone Peak 31-17 to stay undefeated … Four Utah County teams, all from Region 3, remain undefeated as American Fork, Lehi, Pleasant Grove and Skyridge all boast perfect 4-0 records. Eventually something will have to give but league play won’t start for them until September 15 … Timpview ventured out to California last week but this week fellow city rival Provo will go to the Fresno, California, area to play Clovis East High School, which is 3-0 overall. Utah teams, so far against the Golden State, are 0-3 … It was a bit of an off week for Utah County teams. Taking out the county vs. county matchups, valley teams were 4-6 but still stand a solid 26-14 overall.