From Deseret News archives:
High school football: Everything clicks in Orem victory
"Finally, we had a game where everything clicked for us."
The victory secured the Tigers the No. 4 seed from Region 7 and a road game next week against the undefeated Cottonwood Colts, champs of Region 6 and the No. 2 ranked 4A team in the state. But despite the tough first-round draw, Steele is still optimistic in the way his players responded in their final regular-season game.
"We've got everything together and now the kids believe they can play a full game with all of them," Steele said.
When Steele says his guys had things "clicking" he wasn't exaggerating. The Tigers were outstanding on both sides of the ball, with a little extra emphasis on how they ran the football and on how they stopped Mountain View's powerful running attack.
The Tigers racked up 322 total yards and pounded out 259 of that on the ground. John Huntbach carried the pigskin 16 times for 126 yards and one touchdown, while running mate Tyler Boulter got 16 carries as well and finished with 121 yards and one touchdown. Boulter also kicked a field goal and three extra points.
"All around, the kids really responded to all of the challenges we gave to them," Steele said.
Defensively, Orem caused havoc for Mountain View's strong running duo of Anthony Heimuli and TJ Mounga the entire night. The Bruins managed only two first downs in the first half, did not cross midfield in the opening two quarters and only crossed Orem's 40-yard line once — on the game's final drive that ended at the 1-yard line when the Tigers stopped Heimuli short on the game's final play. Mountain View also turned the ball over three times.
"We knew we had to focus on shutting those two down and our kids did a pretty good job of it," Steele said.
From the game's opening seconds things went Orem's way. In fact, two plays into the game Steve Warner tackled Mountain View's Wes Christensen in the end zone for a safety. A few minutes later Boulter put the Tigers up 5-0 on a 25-yard field goal. Three plays into Orem's next possession Boulter burst through a hole in the middle and ran untouched for 35 yards to put the Tigers up 12-0.
Things really turned sour for Mountain View when the Tigers stripped lose a fielded punt and Devin Miner took the loose ball 30 yards to give Orem a 19-0 lead at the break.
The Tigers didn't let up on the gas in the second half and added scores with a 16-yard touchdown run by Huntbach and a 49-yard TD pass from Josh Hamblin to Jordan Egbert.
Despite the lackluster performance on Friday, the Bruins still finished league play with a 4-2 mark and the region's No. 2 seed. They'll open the postseason at home next weekend against Bonneville.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com
