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Sandy • Where there is a Will, there is a way.

At least that's the way it seemed Friday night as Alta's Will Dana tossed five touchdown passes to lead the Hawks to an impressive 49-20 season-opening victory over Taylorsville.

Alta has been known in recent years as a good running team, but Dana aired it out in impressive fashion.

That said, the Hawks' Zach Engstrom, Josh Davis and Tu'u Afu all made some nice runs.

"We have been working hard," said Dana, who tossed scoring passes of 16, 14, 10, 35 and 18 yards, with three going to Engstrom. "It was a fun game, but we have to get ready for next week. We are keeping it even and spreading it around to our playmakers."

The key to the win, though, might have been Alta's defense, which grabbed four interceptions.

None was bigger than the one London Rockwood grabbed in the end zone early in the game and returned 50 yards.

At that point, Taylorsville had held Alta on the first series and was driving. Alta took advantage of the turnover to score and the Warriors never seriously threatened.

"We didn't play as good as I thought we would," said Alta coach Alema Te'o, whose team looked as though it could be in the mix with East and Timpview for a 4A title this year. "The kids were rusty. It's good to get that first one. ... This was a good game to get the kinks out of the way. I thought we mixed the ball well between the run and the pass."

As for Taylorsville, the Warriors got a fine game from star quarterback Dane Leituala, who tossed three touchdown passes — two to Jace Simons — and was easily the team's leading rusher. He will be one of the state's top players.

But, on this night, the Warriors made too many mistakes and Dana and the Alta defense were just too good. —

Storylines

R Will Dana tosses five touchdown passes to lead Alta.

• The Hawk defense comes up with four interceptions.

• Taylorsville's Dane Leituala tosses three touchdown passes.