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SALT LAKE CITY — When teams prepare to play Olympus, the focus is to stop Scotty Edwards.
Edwards, a three-star running back who has offers from multiple schools, is a top priority for opposing defenses, and that was no different for the Brighton Bengals. But it was fellow senior Chase Hopkins who spoiled the fun for the Bengals.
Hopkins, who is built more like a fullback, scored the first three touchdowns for Olympus in their 33-20 win over Brighton Friday night.
“I love playing with Chase," Edwards said. “Chase is an absolute beast, but it’s not just me and Chase, it’s our line. Our line's amazing, man. They're the ones opening the holes and doing everything, so shout out to those guys.”
The offensive line did provide holes for both Edwards and Hopkins to get through for much of the night. Hopkins had two 1-yard touchdown runs, and Edwards sealed the deal for Olympus in the final minutes with a 20-yard run himself.
“They have a good center of gravity,” Olympus head coach Aaron Whitehead said of his senior running backs. “They run hard, they block, and that’s the key. We have another great running back and tremendous one, Christian Peterson, No. 20. Scotty has such great breakaway speed, they both do. You take a look at Chase and he has some girth to him so you look at him as a fullback, but he can turn it on and go.”
The win didn’t come easy for Olympus, though. Brighton, who is under new head coach Justin Hemm, came into this game with a 3-1 record after finishing last season 2-8 and a 1-4 region record.
After a less-than-stellar performance last week, according to Whitehead, he knew he had to prepare his team differently this week if they wanted a win. Edwards and Hopkins both agreed that practices were tough this week as they prepared for the much-improved Bengals.
“This was probably one of our tougher weeks of practice,” Whitehead said. “We had to fix the little things, because the little things weren’t being done last week. Our kids did a tremendous job in executing, and when you play against a team like Brighton — and hats off to coach, he’s turned this thing around and they're good, that’s a very good ball club. That’s a team that’s going to make noise in the playoffs.
"We knew that we could not make the mistakes we made last week against Murray and expect to have success," he added. "Very pleased with our team, very proud of the way they came out — a lot of leadership tonight”
The leadership the seniors provide for Olympus and the effort his team is feeling this season is something Whitehead isn’t taking for granted.
“In this day and age, when high school football or football in general is under attack, it’s refreshing when we have a team like this that just absolutely loves every moment of it,” Whitehead said.
For Edwards and Hopkins, the goals are uniform this season; they want to get back up to Rice-Eccles Stadium and win state.
Carra McManamon is a native of Washington State and is attending the University of Utah. Contact her at cmcmanamon@deseretdigital.com or follow her on Twitter: @curramac22
