It's hard to miss Desert Mountain wide out Mark Andrews on the field. At 6-foot-6, 220 pounds the opposition would take notice even if they didn't already know he was a threat.

Andrews seemed like a decoy for better than 1 1/2 quarters Friday night, but after that he was omnipresent.

Andrews hauled in three touchdowns passes from battery mate Kyle Allen for a big chunk of No. 9 seed Desert Mountain's offense in a 49-21 win over No. 8  Mesa Mountain View in a Division I first-round playoff game at Toro Stadium.

The victory was Desert Mountain's first playoff win since 2009 and advanced the 9-2 Wolves to next week's quarterfinals against top-seed Mountain Pointe (10-1). Mountain Pointe pounded No. 16 Cibola, 49-0. Mountain View, which returned to postseason after a one-year absence, finished its season 7-4.

Andrews, a junior, entered the game with a whopping 67 catches for 1,244 yards and 18 touchdowns. With the game tied at 14 after teammate Cody Erickson scored on a 21-yard pass from Allen with 6:34 left before halftime, Andrews had one reception for five yards. That changed drastically on Desert Mountain's final two possessions of the second period as it was an Allen-to-Andrews clinic.

Desert Mountain, which did not punt in the first half and scored on all four of its possessions, marched 50 yards in six plays to take its first lead and the lead for good, 21-14, with 2:28 left in the half. Allen hooked up with Andrews three times on the drive -- the last a 3-yard TD.

After forcing Mountain View to punt for a second time and getting the ball back at its 23 with 33 seconds before intermission, Allen-to-Andrews was relentless. Three short completions between the duo and a run by running back Daniel Fedorka (who had a nice night himself), moved the ball to the Mountain View 48 with eight seconds left. Allen heaved a Hail-Mary pass that was a bit underthrown inside the 10. It caromed off the fingertips of a Toro defender softly into the hands of Andrews, who took it to paydirt with no time left in the half. Andrews totaled 177 yards on 11 catches. Allen was 18-of-29 for 297 yards and four TDs. 

"We work on that play every Thursday,"' Desert Mountain coach Tony Tabor said. "We're the ones that are supposed to tip it if we can. It was a nice bonus to go to the half with."

The game was very similar to the first meeting between the teams on opening night back in August. Desert Mountain prevailed that night, 49-28. As was the case Friday, the game was still in doubt late in the third quarter with Desert Mountain leading 28-21

Mountain View, which got a blue-collar effort from running back Weston Birtcher (104 yards rushing and two TDs), moved within a score on a fourth-down, 30-yard TD pass from John Clark to Birtcher.

That breathed life into the Toros' crowd, but  Desert Mountain could not be stopped. The Wolves were marching again for another score at the Mountain View 11 a couple minutes after Birtcher's TD catch when the Toros Connor Ipsen intercepted Allen in the end zone and returned it to the Mountain View 17.

Mountain View gained a first down on a scramble by Clark and had momentum. On the next play, however, Desert Mountain's Joe Duran knocked the ball loose from Birtcher on an inside  run. Desert Mountain lineman Jeff Wofford recovered at the Mountain View 40.

"Those were big plays both ways," Tabor said. "We got  some momentum back."

Desert Mountain took five plays to score off the turnover. The TD was  a 20-yard pass from Allen to Andrews with 11:28 to play. That made it 35-21.

"They were double covering me most of the time," Andrews said. "A couple times they checked out of that and were able to hit some big plays. I don't think I was a decoy. We took what was there most of the time."

Desert Mountain's defense stopped Mountain View and got two short fields to work with the rest of the final quarter. Fedorka scored touchdowns on both those drives from 23 and 25 yards out. Fedorka was a nice complement to the passing game. He finished with 125 yards on 14 carries and three TDs.