High school football: West pulls past Timpview to win season opener

The West Panthers are expecting big things out of the 2025 football season.

The Panthers are expected to challenge for their sixth straight region title, and they started the year off the right path Friday night by exploding past perennial 5A power Timpview in front of a loud home crowd.

Senior running back Louie Hamilton rushed for a school-record 314 yards and West’s special teams’ recovered two onside kickoffs to claim a 50-23 victory in the season opener for both teams.

“A great win,” said coach Olosaa Solovi after the three-hour contest that was televised locally. “We have a lot of weapons but Louie really showed he has been working hard.”

Said Hamilton, whose previous career high was 125 yards: “We kept working at it. I just kept following my guys (offensive linemen). I didn’t pay attention to how many yards I was getting. I was just focused on winning.”

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Two of Hamilton’s scores came in the third quarter after Timpview narrowed a 23-3 deficit with two consecutive touchdowns. West reciprocated by having last year’s second team all-state quarterback, Kamden Lopati, keep handing the ball to Hamilton, and Timpview couldn’t stop him.

The Thunderbirds did execute one part of their game plan — containing Lopati. They intercepted three of his first seven passes, though they never took advantage.

On their first offensive play, for example, they snapped the ball past their quarterback for a 22-yard loss and twice had to try to convert third-down plays more than 30 yards from the first-down markers.

“That was big for us,” Solovi said. “We gave them those chances and we were able to hold.”

The game was still scoreless after the first quarter, but then Hamilton began to find running room and Lopati created a couple of big plays, including a 42-yard pass to his brother, Aiden Lopati, to give West a 7-3 lead.

A poor kickoff return led to a safety, and West gained more momentum shortly afterward when Kamden Lopati broke loose on a 46-yard touchdown run.

The Panthers led 23-10 and then opened the second half by recovering an onside kick and Kamden Lopati found Derendrick Dixon on a 51-yard touchdown pass on the next play.

After that, Hamilton and Kamden Lopati took turns frustrating the Timpview defense, which was predicted to finish in second place in Region 7 after reaching the 5A semifinals 10 months ago.

Timpview, however, showed plenty of rust this early and also didn’t seem to have confidence in a starting quarterback, as four players took snaps for coach Travis Uale.

Senior Cole Engemann had a few nice throws in the first half but sophomore Dennis Tuaone used his running and passing ability to lead the majority of the T-Birds’ scoring drives.

Solovi, meanwhile, said he was happy that many parts of West’s game plan came to fruition so quickly. He was proud of Hamilton’s effort (10 yards per carry), Kamden Lopati’s ability to make big plays even though West’s passing game struggled all evening (6 of 15 for 115 yards) and the Panthers’ offensive line dominated throughout. He was also smiling about how West’s special teams play made a difference.

“We put a lot of our best players out there on special teams,” he said. “I don’t think we played as well as we could there last year so we’ve made that one of our top priorities.”