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SALT LAKE CITY — The West Panthers know a thing or two about going down early and then making a comeback.
Head coach Olosaa Solovi and his team lost their first two games of the 2023 season before winning six straight games in league play to take the Region 6 title in the school's first year in the new region.
The Panthers were down 21-7 at halftime in the season finale Wednesday against the Brighton Bengals before winning the second half 24-3 to claim the Region 6 crown with a 31-24 win.
"We've been down all year long," Solovi said. "I don't want to keep doing that, but these guys have just learned to try to stay calm. Hopefully, we don't keep on putting ourselves in that position."
Heavy rain plagued the first half of Wednesday's game, but the Panthers were able to use the chaos to their advantage. West pinned Brighton on the 1-yard line early in the second half on a punt, and Aisea Angilau recovered a fumble in the end zone to kickstart the comeback.
West and Brighton fighting for the Region 6 title tonight.
— Caleb Turner (@calebturner23) October 12, 2023
West down 21-7 at the half but gets a punt to the 1-yard line and recovers a fumble in the end zone to make it 21-14 with 7:56 left in the third quarter. pic.twitter.com/ySTEtxkV9Y
Junior Chachi Pan caught a 65-yard pass from Isaiah SueSue to tie the game at 21-all four minutes later, and then Solovi put the ball in the hands of senior running back Kelvin Malepeai almost the entire rest of the way as the Panthers chewed the clock and churned yards to limit Brighton's time on offense.
A pair of field goals by both teams kept the game tied 24-24 in the fourth quarter before Malepeai punched in the game-winner with 1:06 left after a lengthy West drive that started when Brighton decided to punt the ball with five minutes remaining.
The Bengals were forced to make several deep pass attempts, but came up short of the end zone on the last-minute drive. Brighton had a chance to win the Region 6 title itself with a victory Wednesday but will settle for second place in one of the state's more competitive groups.
"I expect someone from this region to go really deep — maybe two of them — and get to Rice-Eccles," Solovi said. "Hopefully one of them is us, but I won't be surprised if any one of these guys in our region gets deep, so we're really excited."
