Prep football: Hunter finds ways to grind out wins

A new season begins in the playoffs -- records go out the window, and it is a win-or-go-home situation every time a team steps onto the field. Some teams opt to go with what got them to this position, while other teams unveil new wrinkles, like misdirection or gadget plays.

Last Friday against Weber, the Hunter Wolverines (7-3) said hello to their old dance partner, the old-fashioned running game, and waltzed themselves into the second round of the Class 5A playoffs with a 24-20 victory at home. Out of 62 total offensive snaps, the Wolverines ran 54 times, with their star running back Lu'ua Tanuvasa toting it 29 times for 149 yards and two touchdowns.

"This is our game, and this is how we play ball here at Hunter," said Tanuvasa, "We're not changing now; it's either we do, or we die."

It was Hunter's sixth straight win and they now advance to take on one of class 5A's toughest teams, the 9-2 Lone Peak Knights who dispatched West Jordan 27-6 in their first-round matchup. Lone Peak is led by their quarterback Tannon Pedersen, a three-year starter for Lone Peak who has thrown 25 touchdown passes this season.

This will be the first game between these two teams since 2004, a game Hunter won 27-6. This game will come down to Lone Peak's vaunted spread passing offense led by Pedersen against the mauling run game of Hunter and its offensive line.

Hunter coach Dustin Pearce has led the rejuvenation at the West Valley school, and in only

his second year at the helm, has taken what was perceived from the outside as an undisciplined group of players into the state's best running game.

"I'm always telling the boys to believe in themselves, and that they are talented enough to play with any team in the state," said Pearce, "It started with the Cottonwood game, and it has just grown ever since."

Hunter was the surprising Region 2 champion, upending preseason favorites Cottonwood and Skyline. For them to be the 5A champion they will have just as tough, if not a tougher road, with even less people believing in them.

And it's just the way they like it.

 

West Jordan

Although the West Jordan football team was eliminated in the first round by Lone Peak last Friday 27-6, the future has never looked so bright for the Jaguars football program. Coach Mike Morgan will have a full cupboard next season and will be expected to have one of the most explosive offenses in the state.

The Jaguars implemented a spread offense this past summer, and the results were outstanding from the get go. The West Jordan offense was a record setting wrecking ball, averaging 36 points per game, and setting or tying personal state records for multiple players.

Morgan gives credit to his trio of offensive assistants -- Mark Smith, Todd Tovey and Ross Wilson -- for helping speed up the learning curve for the players and coaches learning a new system.

"Those guys have been great for [quarterback Adam Boelter], as well as the whole team, myself included," Morgan said.

In West Jordan's spread offense, it starts with the triggerman. Boelter will be a senior in 2010. He had an amazing first year under center, throwing for over 2,500 yards and 27 touchdowns while rushing the ball for over 450 yards and 13 touchdowns on the ground.

Boelter will lose the state's single season record holder for receptions in C.J. O'Neal, who finished the year with 100 catches for 955 yards and 10 touchdowns, but will have a more than capable replacement in Deshawn Perkins.

Perkins will be a junior in 2010, but as a sophomore in 2009 put up numbers that would satisfy most receivers for their entire high school career, with 62 receptions for 946 yards and nine touchdowns.

Add in running back Cameron Peacock, who will also be a junior in 2010, and the offense looks like it can pick up where it left off in 2009.

In 2010 though, the Jags hope that the season will go beyond the first week of November.