The Hillcrest Huskies had a week to look back at last week’s Region 4 loss to West High and recover. When they returned to their home field Friday, they didn’t waste any time trying to prove themselves.
K’Von Houston threw for 312 yards and six touchdowns and the Huskies impressed their home crowd by scoring on nearly every possession en route to a 48-8 win over West Jordan.
Last week’s loss showed that West might be the class of Region 4 and maybe even all of 5A, but Hillcrest coach Robby Kaelin feels his team may not be far behind.
With the win, Hillcrest improved to 5-2 overall, stayed in second place in region and could be on its way to its first winning season since 2003.
“We were ready to respond,” Kaelin said. “We have the skill players and things just opened up. Last week, we were with West for the first quarter and a half. This time, we took advantage of every opportunity. We played a good game, except for not quite finishing it.”
Kaelin was especially happy Friday with his senior quarterback, who has been part of Hillcrest’s system for much of Kaelin’s four-year career and is putting together breakout season. Houston completed 24 of 36 passes Friday and has already thrown 22 touchdown passes this season.
Kaelin said his offensive game plan is to throw about 85% of the time, and when Houston is accurate, the Huskies can score from anywhere on the field and are in every game.
Kaelin noted right away that this outcome was never in doubt and his stress level stayed comfortable all night as the Huskies took just five plays to get on the scoreboard, starting when Houston connected with Keli’i Batimana on a 31-yard pass.
Kaelin smiled again as he watched Houston add a pair of touchdown throws to Alani Latu and Collin Ence. Levi Lavaka caught another scoring pass and returned a fumble for a touchdown.
Hillcrest led 21-0 after the first quarter and 40-8 by halftime. After that, the only question was whether the contest would end prematurely — if the Huskies were able to stretch the margin to 44 points — and send the fans home early via the UHSAA’s “mercy rule.”
West Jordan, which came into the game tied with Hillcrest for second place in Region 4 but fell to 2-5 overall, didn’t let that happen.
The Jaguars managed a touchdown just before halftime, thanks to series of impressive runs by Bryan Yang and Seteki Tuifua, and then earned some self-respect by putting up a goal-line stand late in the fourth quarter.
Two plays later, quarterback Kenyon Shockey dropped back into his end zone and found Aiden Hendrickson, who scooted through the defense before being tracked down by Hillcrest’s fleet secondary.
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