High school football: Highland starts well, holds off East in rivalry matchup

The Highland Rams and East Leopards both had reasons to celebrate Friday night. However, when the final seconds ticked off the game clock, it was the Rams who were the loudest.

Coach Kautai Olevao admitted his team had this weekend’s traditional rivalry circled for several months, and that was evident in the on-field celebration following Highland’s 17-8 victory.

Brody Dalton threw two touchdown passes and the Rams took advantage of three East fumbles to end a six-game losing streak to the team “up north.”

“It’s the game we want (to win) every year,” said Olevao. “The boys were dedicated all week and the team followed their leaders.”

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Both schools have a lengthy history of football success, but the outcome of this matchup had been one-sided recently with East winning the last six matchups — and only one was close. Highland’s offense had also proved mostly ineffective, scoring more than one touchdown just once since its last victory in the rivalry in 2014.

But 2025 is a new year, and Olevao said Highland picked up some momentum following its 55-0 shellacking of Cottonwood last week. Highland improved to 2-0 in region and 2-3 overall after Dalton passed for 179 yards and didn’t make any mistakes. Senior wide receiver Jackson Folau also had a memorable outing, with 13 catches for 148 yards.

As a team, Highland made the game’s biggest plays while the Leopards mostly continued their snakebitten run that has included losses by 38-0, 52-0, 68-0 and 51-0 this year.

Playing on the Rams’ home field, East had three promising drives end with turnovers and three more stopped on fourth-down conversion attempts.

Highland, however, couldn’t put the game away. The Rams took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter on a 4-yard scoring pass from Dalton to Zamiri Vaughn and then doubled the margin after Dalton found Manase Wolfgramm open on a screen pass and he ran through the East defense for a touchdown.

Highland led 14-0 at halftime and seemed to secure a comfortable win when Caleb Koelliker made a 32-yard field goal with eight minutes to play.

Except that’s when the contest got interesting.

The Leopards wanted to break their hapless scoring streak so far under first year coach Joe Tukuafu, who took the reigns in June after Brandon Matich resigned after 15 years.

The Leopards finally began to move the ball consistently and had a chance to reach the end zone on their next drive but quarterback Timmy Ellis was stopped short of the goal line on a fourth-down play with 3:59 left.

Highland, however, couldn’t move the ball and East regained some momentum, even after Koelliker boomed a 50-yard punt.

Ellis led an eight-play drive that finally ended the team’s season-long scoring drought. On a second-down play, Joseph Cooley took a handoff on a reverse and broke four tackles for a 22-yard touchdown. Ellis added a two-point conversion immediately afteward

“I know that meant a lot to them,” Olevao said. “We know those guys and we all know what this game means. We all want to show up and grow from this.”