Herriman built a 40-point halftime lead and cruised to a 55-24 win over Westlake in Utah Youth Rugby league action Saturday. 

With stranger than usual spring weather, consistent games have been tough to come by at times, and the Mustangs were happy to get back out on the playing field - for their first home contest of the year, no less.

The hosts were able to go on the attack immediately as lock Drew McDaniel caught Maea Leakehe's beautiful opening kickoff in stride and advanced in to the heart of Westlake territory.  A penalty saw No. 8 Zak Barker with a strong run on the quick tap, followed by a nice skip pass from the breakdown to center Juney Leakehe, who powered over for the try less than two minutes into the contest.  High winds would challenge the kickers all day, and the conversion would pull wide.

Westlake would be the beneficiary of a couple of Herriman penalties on the ensuing possession, and would use the wind at their back to find touch deep in to Herriman territory, but they were not able to take advantage. The Mustang defense kept the Thunder attack moving backward and the defensive pressure forced repeated errors. Electric scrumhalf Anthony Perschon, far and away the leading ground-gainer on the day, made a nice break to the short side and found flanker Ethan Burrows in support.  Burrows showed great pace down the sideline, drawing in the fullback and then finding Barker in support, who galloped the remaining 45 meters for a score at the 9 minute mark. Two minutes later, Maea Leakehe would make a slashing, twisting break through the middle of the Westlake defense, knifing through several defenders and covering most of the distance to the try line.  Perschon would pick from the ruck 10 meters out and find hard charging prop Marcus Ortiz in support and there was no stopping the powerful senior with a full head of steam, as he dotted down the Mustangs' 3rd try just 12 minutes in.

A big Perschon break off of the restart was thwarted by a long pass that was a bit too daring in the high winds, bouncing back in to Herriman territory about 20 meters and leading to a Westlake scrum.  Herriman's powerful forwards would drive over in the scrum and steal the ball, however, and would do the same in a subsequent scrum after moving downfield a bit.  From the second steal, Perschon would find Jace Kener streaking up to attack and put the speedy wing away for a score.  

Westlake would get a scrum from a forward pass on the restart, but Perschon would intercept an ill-advised pass and flip the field, finding captain Noah Vaea in support. Although an additional support runner knocked the pass from Vaea forward, flyhalf Maea Leakehe would get a hand on the Thunder's clearing kick and keep the pressure on.  He then reversed field and chased, getting in position from the counterattacking ruck, and take the ball down the sideline for another cutting, weaving run for a 40 meter try.

After nearly 25 minutes with hardly an offensive phase, Westlake was finally able to settle down and put together a consistent attack.  The patiently worked the ball down near Herriman's 22 with some nice, physical play and improved ball handling.  Continued pressure defense turned the tide, however, as the Thunder got stopped behind the gain line and then quickly poached.  Perschon saw an opening and burst in to it, and this time he would not be caught, covering nearly 80 meters for the score.  The game took an unfortunate turn following the score, as a Westlake player giving chase gave a late shove to Perschon after the latter touched down. Perschon vocalized his displeasure, which led to a punch from the Westlake player and a red card given by the match official, who did well managing the game all day.

Utilizing the subsequent penalty, the Mustangs tapped from midfield, incorporated some deception, and saw Barker through a gap that took him nearly untouched down inside of 5 meters.  Burrows received the ball from the base and found lock Ra'Zhan Reed and the big man lowered his shoulder for the try.  Herriman would add one more score to make it three in quick succession, as junior fullback Taysan Hammer nearly took it the distance off of the restart.  The ball found the deft hands of Vaea, who shot through a gap and offloaded to Burrows for the score to give the home side a 40-0 advantage.  The halftime whistle proved to be the only thing on the afternoon that slowed down Herriman's torrid pace, and Westlake would go in to the break frustrated about spending almost none of the half with the ball in their hands

With renewed vigor, the Thunder would find their way on to the board early in to the second half, as a break in to a short side gap saw a nifty fake at a kick ahead to give the defender just enough pause, and a nice burst to finish off the converted try.  Instead of a momentum shift, however, the score seemed to wake the Mustangs up and remind them not to coast.  Juney Leakehe would turn over the ball from the Thunder attack, and find Vaea who would hit Maea Leakehe in stride and see him through an inside gap and a burst down the middle of the field to touch down for his second try.  Westlake's restart would not go ten meters, and Perschon would make yet another huge break off of the ensuing scrum.  At the 22m line he found Vaea in support and offloaded, and the senior center who had spent the day so beautifully setting up his teammates was able to be on the receiving end this time and touch down for the score, extending the lead to 50-7 just 5 minutes in to the half.  

Herriman Coach Derek Smith proceeded to use his full allotment of subs, giving them a good 30 minutes of match time to finish off the day.  Westlake would continue to play hard and were able to do some damage against the Mustang reserves, outpacing them 17-5 the rest of the way behind the stellar all-around play of flanker Joey Shawgo, who does a little of everything for them.  Herriman will look to build on today's result with a matchup vs. Olympus next Saturday for the Central Conference title and a #1 seed in the state playoffs on the line, in a game that could see the Mustangs run out a full strength squad for the first time all season, while Westlake looks to rebound against an emerging West HS squad.

In other action,  Herriman and Snow Canyon's 9/10 grade teams met in a tightly contested match at Snow Canyon.  Both teams came in to the game undefeated, and first place in the standings was on the line.  Both teams had won several games by big margins this year,  and seemed to be on a collision course, and the highly anticipated match did not disappoint.  The 9/10 B Side match which was played first saw Herriman prevail 30-21, and Snow Canyon came out on top in the main event with a 28-24 win and first place in the league standings.  Both teams gathered in the best spirit of the game afterward for some great food provided by the Warriors and some mutual respect for each other after an exciting day of rugby showing that the future is bright for both programs.  As always, Snow Canyon were top-notch hosts.