A well-balanced attack led West over East in every quarter on their way to victory on Thursday. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that the West Panthers blew the East Leopards out of the water with a 48-19 final score. With the Panthers ahead 22-0 at the half, the matchup was all but over already.
Lote Sotele was his usual excellent self, rushing for 203 yards and three touchdowns while picking up 8.5 yards per carry, and also picking up 60 receiving yards and a touchdown. Sotele is crushing it when it comes to rushing yards: he's rushed for at least 154 every time he's taken the field this season. Another player making a difference was Kamden Lopati, who threw for 318 yards and two touchdowns while completing 72% of his passes.
West's defense stepped up as well, laying out the QB ten times. Kisi Fonua led the group effort, picking up three of those sacks all by himself. Takeshi Savery also made eight total tackles, which is notable because West is 3-1 when he posts at least four total tackles, but 2-3 otherwise. West got some further help from Lester Falatea: he forced a fumble and made 14 total tackles.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, West was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 358 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 169 rushing yards in 14 consecutive games dating back to last season.
Although East took the loss, they still got scores from Marcus Loertscher and Nasio Otukolo.
West has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six matches, which provided a massive bump to their 5-4 record this season. As for East, their defeat was their third straight at home, which dropped their record down to 4-5.
West didn't take long to hit the field again: they've already played their next contest, a 7-6 loss against Brighton on the 16th. East has also already played their next matchup, a 40-28 victory against Highland on the 16th.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
