On to the second round: Utah Valley high school football teams face some tough challenges at state
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- Springville’s Tua Naufahu (8) runs over a Spanish Fork tackler in a Region 7 football game on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025.
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- Orem quarterback Tayden Ka’awa avoids a tackler during a high school football game against Lone Peak on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025.
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- Springville’s Tua Naufahu (8) chases Provo quarterback Gehrig Orchard during a high school football game on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025.
The second round of the state football playoffs will be Friday and four games will feature intra-county match-ups where teams from the same league will match up again for the second time of the season.
Here’s what to look for as the tournaments continue:
5A Notes
The 5A playoffs feature two games that will pit valley programs against each other.
No. 18 Spanish Fork (4-7), which pulled off the biggest upset of the playoffs when they beat No. 15 Hunter 42-7 won the right to take on No. 2 seed Springville (9-1). These two teams met at Spanish Fork just three weeks ago with Springville clubbing the Dons 49-3. Spanish Fork faces a tough task obviously but I expect a much better performance though the Red Devils should move on.
The other intra-county match-up in 5A features No. 4 seed Orem (8-2) hosting No. 13 Timpview (6-5). Timpview beat fellow Region 7 rival No. 20 seed Wasatch (4-7) by a 40-15 count in its first round game where Orem received a first round bye. In its previous game with Orem, the Thunderbirds lost 22-9. This is a fierce rivalry so expect a rugged, hard-hitting defensive affair. Orem gained a lot of talent while Timpview had some of its key pieces migrate to other schools. Still, Timpview has a rich tradition and won’t go down without a fight.
These are the only four valley teams left in the playoffs so after this week only two will be left standing. No. 16 Pleasant Grove (4-7) was eliminated by No. 17 seed Northridge (5-5) while Maple Mountain and Payson didn’t make the playoffs finishing with 1-9 and 2-8 records respectively.
4A Notes
Three valley teams remain in the playoffs but unfortunately two will play each other on Halloween Friday. No. 5 seed Provo (6-4) will host No. 12 Salem Hills (7-3). The Bulldogs also hosted the regular season game and beat the Skyhawks easily, 49-25. This started a nice run where Provo finished its regular season with five straight wins including three where the Bulldogs scored 60 or more points. Over the years Provo has struggled winning home playoff games so the Skyhawk faithful will need to hope that the pressure gets to the Bulldogs, otherwise Provo has the superior talent to survive and advance.
No. 15 Timpanogos (5-5) got a big 41-14 win over No. 18 Bear River (3-7) but faces an enormous task by traveling to St. George to take on the No. 2 seed, and the defending 4A champs, Crimson Cliffs (9-1). To give you an idea of the uphill battle the Timberwolves face, Crimson Cliffs beat Provo 28-24 while Timpanogos lost to the Bulldogs 61-24.
6A Notes
No. 7 seed American Fork (6-4) will host No. 10 seed Lehi (5-4). The Pioneer faithful could have a lot to complain about in regards to the Rating Performance Index or RPI. Lehi beat both American Fork and No. 6 seed Lone Peak (5-4).
In the first meeting between the two Region 3 rivals, Lehi hosted and beat the Cavemen pretty good, 26-3. This contest occurred on October 3 or nearly a month ago in what was Week No. 7 of the regular season, so fans of American Fork will hope that the Cavemen have improved and that having this game on home turf will make a difference. There are plenty of examples of teams winning the rematch. Last year, Corner Canyon defeated Lone Peak for the 6A state title after the Knights had beat the Chargers in the regular season.
The road for each team won’t exactly be easy as the winner will likely face No. 2 seed Skyridge (8-2) who should get past No. 15 Copper Hills (3-7) without much fuss. Meanwhile, the aforementioned No. 6 seed Lone Peak Knights will host No. 11 seed Farmington (5-5). The Phoenix won’t be an easy out as they nearly beat American Fork, losing 24-22. Meanwhile, the Cavemen beat Lone Peak 31-28. So this suggests this game could come down to the wire.
No. 9 seed Westlake (7-3) will hit the road to take on No. 8 Syracuse (6-3). The two programs have one common opponent and that is 5A Woods Cross (7-3). Syracuse beat the Wildcats 37-24 but Woods Cross beat Westlake 28-10. Coach Arnold Ale has done a great job building up the Thunder program but his team faces a big challenge against a team that has had decent success on the gridiron over the years.
Other games with valley teams
In 2A, No. 6 seed American Leadership Academy (ALA) takes its 4-6 record on the road to face No. 3 seed South Summit (6-4). The Wildcats crushed ALA 54-15 in an earlier season meeting between these 2A North rivals so the Eagles hope to improve in the rematch.
No. 7 seed Utah Military Academy-Camp Williams (UMACW) earned an impressive 55-6 win over No. 10 Panguitch to open up the 8-player playoffs to go 5-4 on the season. UMACW will now take on No. 2 seed Milford (7-2). The two schools actually didn’t play each other but they both played Panguitch and the Bobcats didn’t receive much mercy from the Tigers either as Milford won 95-20.
Teams bowing out: Two schools that could have participated in the playoffs chose to forgo the opportunity. In 8-player football Monument Valley (0-7) decided to skip the playoffs while Grand (0-10) in 2A hung up its cleats as well.
Four teams finished their season without wins as Ben Lomond (0-10) and Cottonwood (0-9) also finished their seasons without a victory. Cottonwood didn’t make the 4A playoff field but Ben Lomond chose to give it a go in the 3A playoffs and the Scots were defeated by Juab 65-14. By the way, the 14 points Ben Lomond scored against the Wasps was a season-high as the Scots were shut out five times and scored just six points in four other games.
Layton Christian (8-2) played an independent schedule and won’t participate in the state playoffs. The Eagles did play two valley teams and beat 4A Mountain View (3-7) 44-29 and ALA 76-12.
If I could change one thing… I hate to see teams from the same region playing in the first round of the playoffs. The fun thing for me as a former coach and athlete was seeing how your own team (and league) fared against teams from other regions.
In 5A, Spanish Fork got a big break when they traveled to play Hunter. Meanwhile, Wasatch, who actually beat Spanish Fork 15-14 during the regular season, ended up having to go to Timpview. And now both Spanish Fork and Timpview will play teams also from the same region, in the second round when they square off with Springville and Orem respectively.
In the smaller classifications, only two regions exist in each classification so it could be argued that avoiding intra-league first round games might be difficult. And 8-player really has only one division though in many cases, teams don’t play each other. But in the 4A and 5A where there were a full slate of eight first round-games, there were two games in 4A and another two games in 5A where teams from the same league squared off. And two of those four games actually pitted Utah County programs against each other.
Just another reminder to check the starting times of the team you might follow. The default times are 4 p.m. Friday but often coaches will agree to change the kickoff times.
