COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Orem may not be the same type of juggernaut offensive team like in the past two championship seasons, but in the first two rounds of the playoffs this year it has flashed the same dominant defense.
Orem’s defense overpowered Brighton in the 5A second round on Friday night, recording six sacks and three turnovers, one of which was a scoop and score by Noah Sewell, as the Tigers comfortably prevailed 21-6.
Brighton’s defense kept it close with big plays of its own, but the offense could only muster up two field goals on its only two trips into the red zone.
“Our defense, we told them at the beginning of the year that we were going to put a lot on them, and before the game we let the defense know you have to hold them to zero and try and get a couple turnovers and they did phenomenal job tonight,” said Orem coach Jeremy Hill.
With the victory, Orem advances to next week’s quarterfinals at Olympus.
Orem only led 7-3 at the half but pulled away in the third quarter with offensive and defensive touchdowns from Sewell — the second straight game he’s scored on both sides of the ball.
Orem’s coaching staff used Sewell sparingly offensively in the first half with just two carries, but in the third quarter it sensed the need to use the Sewell cheat code.
“I went to him and I said I know you’re tired but I need to use you on offense here, go get me one,” said Hill.
With his team in great starting field position, Sewell ripped off a 20-yard run on the first play of the drive and then one play later slashed and spun his way into the end zone for a 12-yard TD run giving Orem the 14-3 lead.
At halftime, Hill reminded his players that Brighton is a quality 8-win team and they needed to play more disciplined and put the game away. Sewell responded to the challenge on his 12-yard score, and then two series later scored on a 50-yard fumble return pushing the lead to 21-3 with 1:28 left in the quarter.
The Bengals kept things interesting in the fourth quarter after Orem fumbled the ball up on its own 17 yard line. Even though the offense went backward, Owen Smith booted his second field goal of the game, cutting the deficit to 21-6 with 5:25 remaining and making it a two-possession game.
Brighton recovered the ensuing onside kick, but the offense went three and out as Orem’s defense finishing things out.
Orem’s defense held Brighton to just 148 yards of total offense, while offensively it finished with 301 yards.
The big issue for Orem on Friday was penalties, as it committed 11 penalties for 110 yards in the first half. It only had two penalties in the second half though, but Hill acknowledged it’s something his team needs to clean up.
“I always want to tell the horse ‘whoa’ versus of ‘giddy up.’ So we try and find that line and push as much as we can versus try to motivate guys to get more out of them,” said Hill. “Emotion is a big part of this game especially at the high school level. We’ve just got to do better to control it if we want to go win three more games.