5A high school football: Hunter grinds out win over Warriors

WEST VALLEY CITY — Hunter running back La'au Tanuvasa has plenty of reasons to be sore when waking up today — 29 of them, in fact.

Tanuvasa carried the football 29 pad-crunching times for the Wolverines to help lead the Region 2 co-champions to a 24-20 win over Weber in the 5A state playoffs Friday afternoon. He gained 149 yards and ran for two touchdowns in his workhorse performance. But the senior didn't want to take much credit for the numbers.

"Everything I accomplish out on the field I owe to my big guys up front," La'au Tanuvasa said. "Without those guys doing their job up front, I'm not going anywhere. The glory might go to me, but the only reason I get any credit is because they do all the work."

Hunter's offensive attack is a pound-it-out, three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust running game. It doesn't care if the defense knows what is coming, as evidenced by its 54 running plays compared to eight passing. It just lines up and runs the ball right at the usually smaller defensive line.

"I love lining up behind our big line and just putting the ball up in there," added La'au Tanuvasa. "Those guys just outwork and out-muscle the other team. I just take the ball and follow my blockers."

Ului Lapuaho, Walter Sevolo and Seleti Leakehe were just a couple of the guys in the trenches getting it done for the Wolverines.

Things didn't start off all that well for Hunter, however. On its first possession the team had a couple of penalties that backed it up to its own 9-yard line and forced a punt. The Warriors broke through the line and blocked the kick with Jayce Warren pouncing on the ball in the end zone for the opening score.

"I told the guys that we knew it wasn't going to be easy and to just go out and continue playing our game," said Wolverines coach Dustin Pearce about going down early. "

After a couple exchanges of punts, Murphy Lauolefiso gave Hunter the momentum when he intercepted a tipped ball at the Weber 35-yard line. Seven plays later La'au Tanuvasa scored the first of his touchdowns on a 6-yard run.

On the Wolverines' next possession, brother Fausia Tanuvasa got in on the scoring action. Taking a direct snap in the Wolverine/Wildcat formation, he scampered 50 yards for the score and 14-7 lead, which held until the half.

"We were able to put that in during our bye week last week," said Pearce. "We think we have the athletes to use that effectively."