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HERRIMAN — The offense struggled early, the kicker was errant most of the game, and the game's first punt was blocked. No problem for the reigning Herriman Mustangs (1-0), reigning 5A state champions. They overcame a jittery start to pick up a solid win against the highly regarded Brighton Bengals (0-1).
"We started off slow and I knew we needed a spark, and I tried to be that spark," said Herriman running back/defensive back Noah Vaea, the player of the game. "Our O-line stepped up, made some great blocks, and that was it from there."
Vaea scored two touchdowns running the football, but was just as valuable defensively, notching an interception and making plays all night on the defensive end. When asked about his team's mentality, Vaea was direct.
"We just duck our heads and go," said the senior. "They know what we do. Every team does, so we run down their throat."
After a blocked punt on Herriman's first series led to a quick Brighton touchdown from Bengals' standout running back Sione Lund, Herriman managed to settle down. A nice run from Vaea at the eight-minute mark of the first quarter was followed a few plays later by another nice run from senior Juney Leakehe. Herriman continued steamrolling toward the end zone, and soon Vaea had the team's first touchdown.
While the game remained tight toward the end of the first half, Leakehe managed to score once more for Herriman, which led 13-7 at the break.
The second half was all Mustangs, however, with Vaea and Leakehe each managing a touchdown apiece to put it out of reach. The game's best play came from Vaea, a toss out to the right that Vaea took and cut back to the left, setting up a pivotal score for the home team.
Vaea said that he currently holds offers from a number of Utah schools, including Weber State and Southern Utah, but said his sights are set on another Utah school.
"The dream is the University of Utah," he said.
Junior defensive end Tevita Fotu, younger brother of current Ute freshman defensive tackle Leki Fotu, was pleased with his team's performance.
"Just like last year, right now, we have a bunch of doubters. We're just here to play the game of football, be a team and work our way up there," said Fotu. Speaking of his older brother, Fotu mentioned his desire to follow in his footsteps.
"I look up to him. He's the first brother that went D-1."
The Bengals were disappointed with the loss, but still seemed upbeat about their prospects this season.
"We have a couple things we need to fix, and we'll be right back on track," said senior QB/WR/DB Andrew Covey. "We went flat, didn't bring the energy that we needed," said Covey, in response to questions about his team's failure to keep the momentum.
Lund, a Stanford commit, was also disappointed, saying the second half was where it went wrong for them.
"We came out in the second sort of flat and lost the momentum and energy we had in the first half."
Energy may have been an issue for his teammates, but it wasn't for Lund, who played the whole game at a variety of positions. It was clear from the start that Brighton intends to get the ball in his hands as much as possible, whether it's out of the backfield or through the air. Lund said his energy comes from practice.
"It's going hard in practice and doing conditioning after practice," said the senior, currently the No. 2 ranked prospect in the state. Going the extra mile is what's expected of us in our program. It probably didn't show on the field today, but we're only going to get better.
Notes
Brighton's Lund mentioned he's still a solid commit to Stanford, while Herriman defensive end Tevita Fotu announced his intentions to commit to the University of Utah sometime in the near future.
"I'm looking forward to committing up there to the University of Utah and playing with him (his brother, Leki) again."
Brighton's Covey started the game at quarterback, but after an early interception, spent most of his time lined up at wide receiver in addition to his duties as a defensive back. Junior quarterback Alex Zettler was his replacement.
"We're switching it up, testing us both out, seeing what works best," said the senior. Stephen Lindsey is a student at the University of Utah currently working as an intern with KSL.com in Salt Lake City. Contact him at th3sl3@gmail.com or interact via his Twitter handle, @th3sl3