Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY — From an 0-5 start to a first-round 4A playoff win, the East Leopards have clawed their way back into contention this season.
Friday night in Salt Lake City, the Leopards played the same team that started it all, the Murray Spartans. East won the first game of the season against the Spartans in a 57-34 victory on Sept. 19.
"Attitude and effort," East head coach Joe Tukuafu said of his team's turnaround season. "Week-by-week, we focus on what we can do better, how well we can play our best ball, being our best selves on and off the field. It's all about trust."
Both teams battled early, with East scoring first on a 12-yard strike from Dru Reuss to Tommy Ellis, one of two touchdown passes for Reuss who also had two scores on the ground.
The Spartans then scored 13 unanswered points, with two of the four touchdown passes by Murray's Phil Holland who also passed for a game high 343 passing yards.
"To us, that really didn't matter. we practiced even harder because it was playoffs," Ruess said of the mental factor of having already beat Murray. "Everyone said it's harder to beat a team twice, so we came in and practiced so much harder. We expected they were going to fight, but we were going to fight too."
The Leopards opened the scoring on a 26-yard run from Asaeli Otukolo to extend the East lead 27-13. Murray immediately responded with a sizable kick return followed by a 49-yard run from McKade Eardley to end the third quarter in a one score game, 27-20 East lead.
"This team is resilient, we started this season off behind the ball," Tukuafu said. "The guys that stayed and wanted to play for East even after legendary coach Brandon Matich stepped down, that's where the resiliency started. That's the DNA of this team learning how to fight back from all challenges that they face,"
That resiliency was tested early in the fourth quarter when Murray scored to tie the game at 27-27 when Holland connected with Dax Jensen for a 30-yard score.
East then controlled the rest of the quarter with a time-consuming drive that ended with a Otukolo touchdown, a fourth-down stop against Murray with less than six minutes to go, and a score on the ground by Ruess to put East up 41-27.
With the win, East moves on to face the No. 1 seed in the 4A playoffs in the Ridgeline Riverhawks on Halloween night.
"Ridgeline is a great team; they have great players on their team," Tukuafu said. "What me and my staff are looking at is how well can we play our best ball. What can we do to make these players in the right mindset? What can we do to help these players succeed on and off the field?
"Football is the easiest part of this game. Handling the off the field to me is the most challenging part of about playing football, I want these kids to perform at their best."
