By Michael Bingham
The Wasatch Wildcats muscled their way past the Utah Wolverines Thursday night, May 27, winning 30-0.
“Defensively, we were awesome tonight,” Wasatch quarterback Stan Parrish said. “Our defense has been superb all year.”
Wasatch, Orem”s semi-pro football team, brought defensive pressure from all over the field and was too much for Utah”s offensive line to handle. Nine Wildcats combined for nine sacks, including a safety at the start of the fourth quarter. Also, strong safety Jeff Wissler thrilled the crowd by pulling down two interceptions. Wissler now has had three picks in four preseason games.
“When you”re playing an in-state team, you want to go all out and prove to everybody who”s the best in the state,” Wissler said. “Since that”s the only in-state team we play, we really wanted to do that tonight. We did it slowly, we weren”t as dominant as we wanted to be, but still it”s a big win and it was our goal to come out here and win convincingly.”
The Wildcats” defense was brilliant all night, shutting out the visiting Wolverines.
Meanwhile, both offenses stalled in the first quarter and the game looked poised to become a defensive standoff. The Wolverines came into the game claiming to have one of the best defenses in the league, yet Utah”s reputation for defensive prowess was short-lived. Their strength carried them deep into the second quarter, at which point their defensive line fell faster than the walls of Troy.
In the final five minutes of the second quarter, Parrish completed two touchdown passes on consecutive drives to Hans Hatchett and Jonathan Olson, quickly burying Utah at the half, 14-0.
“I think their pass rush slowed down a little bit, they got a little tired and our offensive line did a good job all game of sustaining the pass rush,” Wasatch head coach Eric Drage said. “We didn”t run the ball like I wanted to, but the pass blocking was good so later on we were able to catch some deeper stuff and loosen up offensively.”
Parrish completed 16 of 33 passes for 172 yards and three touchdowns. He added a one-yard sneak up the middle for another score.
Wissler”s son, wideout Mike Wissler, capped off the Wildcats” scoring with a 27-yard touchdown grab midway through the fourth quarter.
Although the Wildcats showed signs of brilliance, they were riddled with penalties and mental mistakes. Wasatch was the recipient of 16 penalties totaling 145 yards.
“I am still not happy with our mistakes, we had 14 points in the first half and we should have put up more points but we just killed ourselves with mistakes and penalties,” Drage said. “We”d have a six-yard gain on first down and we”d get called for holding and then we lose ten, and we”d be back at second and 20. That stuff just kills you and I am a little disappointed about that.”
With less than a minute remaining in the game, Utah completed a ten-yard pass to Wasatch”s four-yard line for a first down. Nevertheless, this was a night to remember for the Wildcats” defense. They capped the night with a strong goalline stand, spoiling Utah”s attempts with four consecutive defensive stops. Game over.
Halfback Tyler Kukahiko rushed for 46 yards on just six attempts for the Wildcats. Olson had two catches for a team-high 64 yards, including his 22-yard touchdown catch near the end of the first half.
On defense, defensive end Jasen Ah You lead the team with 21/2 sacks, while linebacker Delbert Hammond added 11/2 sacks. Hammond was also in on the safety.
“For us this is a huge win,” Parrish said. “Because this will be our only in-state game and we are a part of an elite league, if we lose a game like that or even make it a barn-burner, we lose credibility. To be honest with you, we still struggled a lot tonight with dropped balls and misreads on stuff. Truth is, the defense is looking real good and our offense left plenty to be improved upon.”
The Wildcats finished up preseason action with a 2-2 record. They begin regular-season play Saturday with a game against the Northern Colorado Wolfpack. Game time is 6:00 p.m. at Mountain View High School.
