- Fremont defeated Weber 42-10 in their season-opener, leading 42-0 at halftime.
- Fremont's defense dominated, shutting down Weber's passing game and forcing turnovers.
- Fremont's coach praised the offensive line and defense; Weber scored late to avoid shutout.
PLEASANT VIEW — The Weber-Fremont football rivalry game has always been scheduled in September or October, right around the middle or tail end of region play, right when the weather starts trending toward proverbial "football weather."
Friday's meeting between the two county rivals had two firsts to it before kickoff: first time meeting in the season opener and first time meeting as non-region foes in the regular season (they met in the 1999 4A state semifinals).
Afterward, the assessment shows there were some more firsts — specifically, first downs for Fremont. The Silverwolves went home after a 42-10 thrashing of their rivals, leading 42-0 in the second half before rotating in the backups.
Fremont is one of the favorites in Region 5 for a reason, or as it showed Friday, 42 reasons. Defensively, the Silverwolves shut down Weber's pass game, making the Warriors' third-and-long situations near formalities for Fremont's defense.
And offensively, the Silverwolves took advantage of short fields and their own strong ground game.
"Everybody knows what we're capable of doing in the air, but today we wanted to make sure we could establish what we could do on the ground," Fremont head coach Nate Tuatagaloa said. "So our O-linemen, kudos to them, that's the MVP of tonight — that and the defense. The defense flew around."
The Silverwolves couldn't have drawn up a better start, as they led just 17 seconds after kickoff.
They tried a pooch kick on the opening kickoff, recovered it and scored two plays later on Manase Tuatagaloa's 7-yard pass to a wide-open Salesi Moa. Fremont forced a Weber punt, then went up 14-0 on the next drive on Cade Hadley's short run.
Kamden Murphy broke up a Weber fourth-down pass, one of several key pass breakups by the Silverwolves in their shutout first half; and Fremont again scored on the ensuing drive from Hadley's 12-yard run. Later, Murphy had another pass breakup, punching the ball out of Brock Dean's hands to prevent a sure touchdown.
Finally, it appeared Weber had something good going for it with Bracken Day's interception to set up a short field, but the Silverwolves pulled off a goal-line stand at the 1-yard line to preserve the shutout.
Hadley bagged his third touchdown midway through the second quarter (28-0), and the Silverwolves almost had a five-score lead at halftime as Cam Graves picked off Weber quarterback Carter Payne, but Tuatagaloa dropped the snap at the 1-yard line and time expired on the first half.
"We did a great job coming out the gates, making some big plays, that definitely got our momentum going. But we knew, on the sideline we just kept saying we have to keep going, it's not over, we wanted to make a statement and not just win," Hadley said.
Weber held firm on defense for more than a quarter of game time, but started losing players to injury in the second half. Fremont's Chase Blanch ran in for a short touchdown with 3:55 left in the third quarter, and the Silverwolves took a 35-0 lead, starting the running clock.
Taylor Graham ran for a 17-yard touchdown to get the score to 42-0 late in the third quarter. Jordan Larkin made all six of his extra-point attempts for Fremont.
Weber's Wyatt Neilsen ran in for a 14-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter to break the shutout, and Zach Jenkins made a late field goal to get Weber to 10 points.
Fremont's non-region schedule only gets tougher, with a road game at Region 1 favorite Davis, followed by a home game against powerhouse Corner Canyon before starting a Region 5 schedule that's loaded with rivals.
Weber heads to Brighton next week before hosting Roy for the Shield Game on Aug. 29, followed by games against Viewmont and Lehi to close non-region play.
