As the second half of the Hunter-Cottonwood game began Friday afternoon, the homestanding Colts appeared to be in pretty good shape.
On the strength of a touchdown just before the intermission, they'd pulled within two points of the Wolverines at 14-12. And the Colts were on the receiving end of the second half kickoff.But three possessions and 9:09 later, Cottonwood had fumbled the ball away twice, thrown an interception - and Hunter had scored three touchdowns to take a 21-point lead en route to a 39-12 victory.
About the only good thing about the third quarter for the Colts was that they didn't have to punt.
"Our defense really dominated the second half," said Hunter coach Mike Fraser. "And I was real happy with our offense's ability to convert those turnovers."
On Cottonwood's third offensive play of the second half, quarterback Riley Jensen's pass was picked off by Hunter's Nolan Skilby, who returned it 39 yards to the Colt 19. Two plays later, Tefua Bloomfield broke what looked like a sure tackle and raced 13 yards into the end zone.
On Cottonwood's next offensive play, the Hunter defense surged into the backfield, forced a fumble and recovered at the Colt 25. Eight plays later, on fourth-and-3 from the 4, Bloomfield swept right for another TD.
Almost unbelievably, on their very next play the Colts fumbled it away again, this time at their own 24. Aided by a late hit penalty on Cottonwood, the Wolverines were in the end zone again just six plays later - and again it was Bloomfield scoring from the 2.
As if that weren't enough, midway through the fourth quarter, Bloomfield pulled in a screen pass from quarterback Nate Savage, and rumbled downfield. Three bone-jarring hits later, he'd left half the Cottonwood defense laying on the field on his way for still another score.
"Tafua, you're a machine, dude," teammate David Cruz told him on the sidelines. "How'd you get through that?"
"That's the best run I've ever seen," added Fraser.
How quickly things have changed for Hunter. Last week the Wolverines, just in their second year of existence, won their first-ever game by crushing Olympus 31-3. This week it was their first-ever road win.
And players who suffered through an 0-9 campaign in 1990 were yelling "Rice Stadium" - a vow to make the state quarterfinals - after week two of the 1991 season. Does Fraser has to worry about his players getting too confident.
"Aw, I know it's trite - but you have to play the games one at a time," he said. "I just hope we can keep playing like this."
The scoring began as almost a mirror image of what the second half would bring. Hunter fumbled the ball away on its first possession, and the Colts converted on a 14-yard pass from Jensen to Sean-Paul Borg.
Hunter took the lead for good at 7-6 on a 2-yard run by Auono Laumua, then scored a defensive touchdown when a Jensen, about to go down under the Wolverine rush, tossed an incomplete pass - backwards. Scott Halowell picked the ball up and took it about 25 yards for the score.
Hunter's final score came just seven seconds before the half. Jensen completed a 47-yard pass to Borg all the way to the 1 when a Hunter defender slipped in the muddy turf. After losing a few yards, the quarterback then found Tom Geertsen in the end zone for the score.