High school football: Orem rides red-hot start to easy 5A semifinal win over West

On paper, Thursday morning’s 5A semifinal between No. 1 West and No. 4 Orem had all the makings of a great football game. Explosive offenses, great defenses, long winning streaks and legit talent on both sides of the ball.

Within a few minutes of the opening kickoff, however, it became clear the narrative would unfold much differently.

The push in the trenches in the opening quarter was one-way traffic, with Orem’s offensive and defensive lines overwhelming their West counterparts.

By the end of the first quarter, Orem led 20-0 and total yardages were 155 for the Tigers and minus-2 for West.

For all intents and purposes, the outcome had been decided, and the last 36 minutes were a mere formality as Orem ran away with the easy 34-7 victory.

When West QB Kamden Lopati exited with a shoulder injury early in the second quarter, that kind of felt like the dagger.

“We felt like we deserved the No. 1 seed, and so we wanted to come out for the rest of the state that we deserved it,” said Orem defensive end Junior Moala. “All week we were talking about it, preaching about it. Let’s go out, let’s go play physical, dominant football, and that’s what we did. And we came out with this win.”

Moala’s push on the line was huge part of Orem’s dominance as it held West to just 140 yards of offense on 61 plays — an average of just 2.3 yards per play.

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Orem sacked West’s QBs eight times and recorded 15 tackles behind the line of scrimmage.

Orem coach Lance Reynolds had an inkling his defense might have a big edge heading into the game despite West’s lofty 11-1 record.

“I’m just so unfamiliar with their region. A lot of the teams they played, they can stomp all those teams, but I just didn’t know what that means. But I did know how good we were, and that we’ve been polishing a lot of those things that we weren’t good at early,” said Reynolds. “I kind of felt like we’re going to surprise them a little bit how good we are.”

The first 12 minutes played out exactly that way.

After West went three-and-out on its opening drive, Orem punched back immediately with a four-play, 62-yard scoring drive that Aisa Galeai capped on a 45-yard touchdown run for the 6-0 lead.

Another three and out by West, and within six plays the Tigers were back in the end zone on a 2-yard run by Easton Kojima, who walked in untouched with 6:00 still remaining in the the first quarter.

In was rinse and repeat for both teams on their next possession. West’s offense goes backwards, punts, Orem takes advantage of the short field and scores quickly, this time a Kaue Akana 32-yard TD pass from Tayden Ka’awa for the 20-0 lead.

“We weren’t surprised what they were capable of. We were hoping that our guys were ready to step up, and we felt good about the plan. They just played better at the beginning of that game, and that was the key,” said West coach Olosaa Solovi. “We just didn’t make enough plays to keep ourself in the game, which we expected we could, we just didn’t.”

Reynolds was a bit disappointed with how his team performed after going up 20-0, as it didn’t score again until midway through the third quarter, and only finished the first half with 147 yards.

“They responded to me at halftime, so I was happy with that,” said Reynolds.

Orem extended the lead to 27-0 on a Moala 2-yard TD pass midway through the third quarter.

West finally got on the board in the final minute of the third quarter, trimming the deficit to 27-7 on a Junior Dixon 3-yard TD reception from Lopati.

Lopati separated his shoulder in the first quarter on one of Orem’s eight sacks, and it popped out again in a non-contact injury early in the second quarter as he was scrambling to the sideline for a first down.

Quite miraculously, he returned midway through the third quarter and was able to still throw the ball pretty effectively as he finished 12 of 17 for 102 yards.

Orem didn’t mind giving up a few chunk passing yards, but it was dead set on stopping the run. Reynolds said even he was a little uncomfortable with the defensive staff coming out with a five down front game plan, but it obviously worked to perfection.

West only rushing 38 total yards after coming into the game averaging 284.8 yards per game.

Orem finished the game with 255 yards of total offense, far from its best outing the season, but it did the damage early and that was more than enough.