West Valley City • It may not have been the region championship game, but it sure had the feeling of one.
The Kearns offense woke up in a big way after trailing by two scores earlier and eventually did what needed to be done to get past Hunter 52-36 in an offensive shootout Friday.
The backbone of the Cougars offense was star running back Sese Felila. The Hunter defense had no answer for Felila, who ran for 133 yards and five touchdowns.
“Sese is such a workhorse,” Kearns coach Matt Rickards said “He’s one of the toughest guys that I know. He’s the most humble person that I’ve ever known. He doesn’t think he’s a good running back, but he had five rushing touchdowns tonight. Such an unbelievable player.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME <br>Kearns senior Sese Felila carried his team on his back for the better part of the game, rushing for 133 yards and scoring five times.
Felila was quick to give credit to his teammates, especially his offensive linemen.
“The defense came up huge in the second half,” he said. “We kept fighting, and I have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line. The linemen opened up space for me, and I was able to find the end zone pretty easily tonight.”
With the game tied 28-28 at halftime, Kearns knew if it was going to outlast Hunter, the defense needed to improve its play over the first half.
The message was well received, and the Cougars forced three turnovers in the second half, including two interception by Marcus Soloman, one returned for a touchdown.
“This shows how tough our kids are,” Rickards said. “We made some adjustments at halftime and our kids really responded. We pretty much shut them out in the second half, so I’m really proud of our defense as well as our offense.”
Kearns quarterback Issac Matua had himself quite a game as well, completing 10 of 16 passes for 231 yards and added 93 yards rushing in the win.