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SANDY — Alta and East battled it out down to the wire in the first region matchup Friday night in Sandy, but it was East that got the upper hand against an undefeated Alta team.
The Hawks walked onto the field with a 3-0 record, but the home team went away with its first loss, a 10-7 result, of the year.
As the game clock slowly ticked down in a 7-7 game, fans in the stands prepared for overtime. But they were soon out of their seats when the Leopards were able to drive down the field and get into field goal position.
With two seconds remaining in regulation, East kicker Luca Viana stepped up to attempt a 35-yard field goal. Viana's kick went up and through the uprights with ease, and the Leopards stormed the field to celebrate a gritty win on the road.
The leopards remained confident and didn't let the clock get to them.
"Listen, this offensive line is pretty special," East head coach Brandon Matich said. "I know we had some breakdowns on the blitz and pass, but I'll be honest with you, when we lined up they said let's go win this thing."
The game opened up with flags thrown left and right through the duration of the first quarter, which caused a slow start. But late in the clock, the Leopards were able to gain some ground to give the team a first down on the Hawks' 12-yard line going into the second quarter, and then senior Michael Nunu Fonua found the end zone on a 6-yard run to give East a 7-0 lead.
Following the initial score, the game turned into a defensive slug fest until the last seconds of the first half. When 12 seconds left in the half, Hawks quarterback Matt Mckae looked up field from the Leopards' 23-yard line and found a streaking Wyatt Johnson at the goal line to even the score at 7-7 going into the locker room
A slew of penalties slowed down the third quarter, and the two defenses came up with key stops to keep the game locked up until that game-winning field goal..
With a victory over the Hawks, the Leopards even out their record at 2-2 and look to get a win over Olympus at home in two weeks. Alta falls to 3-1 and will take on the West Panthers Friday, Sept. 8.
