Stellar ‘D’ and Stellar ‘O’: Put to the Test

In a highly anticipated match up the Alta Hawks rolled onto Brighton’s turf with a high-powered offense that hadn’t met an end zone it didn’t like. What awaited them was a Brighton defense that very rarely had met an end zone.

In four games this year the Ricky Heimuli-led Brighton defense had only given up 23 points, before last week’s loss to Lone Peak however, the Bengals’ defense was flawless by not giving up a single touchdown in their first three games. In the Alta Hawks’ first three games, their offense led so smooth by quarterback Jordan Brown, had averaged 41.3 points per game with their lone loss coming from a close call with Bingham. The question this Friday was, “Who’s dominating crew was going to stick to their trend?” because something had to give.

Brighton’s Sosaia TaKai struck early and struck often as he opened the scoring with a 45 yard touchdown run that put the Bengals up 7-0. TaKai finished the game rushing 32 times for 185 yards and his 45 yard score. After an Alta field goal by Vance Bingham, Brighton proceeded to counter with another big play score as Derrick Newell found Stephen Robinson for a 57 yard strike.

Although the game was never a blow out, Brighton’s defenders held strong. Jordan Brown put up his typical passing yardage 21 of 32 for 309 yards - that we’ve all come to expect. Alta had three receivers with at least 70 yards receiving – Tyron Morris, Skylar Mayne, and Zach Liston - but the end result was one touchdown. As the clock ran to zero, Alta left the field knowing that they shouldn’t face a defense like this for the rest of the regular season as the Bengal’s came out on top, 21 to 10.

For the year now, after five games, the stingy defense of the Bengals shows no signs of stopping their dominance. With the Alta game in the books the average points per game against them is a minimal 8.25. This includes three shutouts for a defense that is quite simply, dominating!