Joe Mano's hat trick propels Utah Warriors to rout of Toronto Arrows

HERRIMAN — Joe Mano scored two second-half tries to the Utah Warriors' second-ever hat trick on Saturday. But it was Mano's opening score just before halftime that propelled the second largest margin of victory in club history.

Mano's three scores paced the Warriors to a 47-19 win over the Toronto Arrows at Zions Bank Stadium in Utah's third-highest scoring match all time and third win in the last four matches.

On the final play from the open field of the half, Mano trucked a defender with an ankle-breaking sprint to the corner to pull the Warriors (3-2, 14 points) within 12-8 of the Arrows after a lethargic start.

That was all they needed to outscore visiting Toronto (1-4, 5 points) 39-7 the rest of the way.

"That is what we want, one-on-one with the fullbacks on the wings," said Mano, who has 13 tries in the last 12 matches for Utah. "We've been working hard on our defense the last couple of weeks, and we just stopped them from scoring tries. Then we attacked after that."

After conceding a pair of tries early, including Lolani Faleiva's bruising score off a maul in the 15th minute, Utah rallied to pull within 12-8 at halftime when Mano found space on a breakaway down the left wing on the final play of the first half.

Mano gave Utah its first lead, taking a pass from Lance Williams and dotting it down in the corner in the 47th minute to give the Warriors a 15-12 advantage.

After Ross Braude's try returned the lead to Toronto, Paul Lasike finished off Lance Williams' open run down the right flank to put the Warriors back in front 25-19 in the 65th minute.

Utah never trailed again.

"We were completely behind in territory, completely behind in possession, and defending relatively well, considering the amount of tackles we had to make," Warriors coach Greg Cooper said of the first half. "The frustration was there; we were doing it with the ball, then defending well, and giving up a couple of soft tries.

"I think that try was just the catalyst ... to use the ball. Keep the ball in hand, we scored that try, and then we knew we just had to hold the ball. It wasn't just the tries, but the style of the tries; it was quite clinical. There was some magic, but we went through a stretch of 20-25 minutes where the passing, the support, the depth and the skill were good. It was about 40 minutes of subline rugby."

Mano finished off his hat trick with a diving try after Hodgson flipped the field with a kick from the far right corner to the left wing with just over 10 minutes remaining.

Hodgson added another kick-assist moments later, finding Mika Kruse for a one-handed grab-and-dot to go up 35-19.

"We do that at practice every day," Mano said. "We just have fun in practice, and we brought it to this game. … We know what happens after we break the line on the edge: the kick is coming on the other side."

Utah continues its run of four-of-six matches at Zions Bank Stadium next Friday, March 31 against the New England Freejacks. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MDT on FS2.

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