Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
WEST VALLEY CITY — Ariane Simo and the rest of the Granger High cheerleading squad is getting tired. The Lancers football team had just scored yet another touchdown, and the student section wanted more pushups. Simo and co. happily obliged.
But the next time the Lancers scored, the cheerleaders shifted to leg kicks instead.
"For whatever the scoreboard says, that's how many pushups we do," Simo, a senior, said after Granger beat Taylorsville 61-27. "Sometimes our coaches will be like, 'OK it's a lot.' So they'll let us (hold) a one-minute plank, or we'll do kicks and we'll just switch from right and left."
The Granger cheerleaders have had to do a bunch of pushups, leg kicks and one-minute planks lately. In the last two weeks, the Lancers have scored a total of 122 points. Last week, they beat Kearns 61-0.
And it's not like the cheerleaders get to pick up where they left off. When the Lancers have 7 points, they do seven pushups. When they reach 14, the cheerleaders start from zero and do 14. And so on.
"It does get hard," Simo said. "But at the end of the day, we're excited for our team."
Simo, who's the captain of the cheerleading team, has every reason to be excited. The Lancers are on a two-game winning streak and scoring a ton of points in the process. Friday's win over Taylorsville improved Granger's record to 3-5 overall and 2-1 in 5A Region 4.
"It just shows us what we can do," junior running back Sunia Fifita said. "I think the other games, we've just been letting it slide. But I know we're going to start winning these next games."
At first, Granger didn't enjoy the type of ease it did last week against Kearns.
Taylorsville matched each of the first two touchdowns the Lancers scored, and the game was tied 13-13 in the first quarter before Granger started to tighten up on defense and gain separation.
The Lancers put themselves in good field position as the first quarter ended, and senior running back Maka Sonasi nabbed a 6-yard touchdown to give them a 20-13 lead.
Granger's next drive ended with a 39-yard rushing TD from Fifita for a 27-13 lead. Later in the quarter, junior quarterback Aidan Welchman connected with senior wide receiver Brighton Webb on a 19-yard touchdown pass, giving Granger a 33-13 lead.
As time expired, Taylorsville finally answered with a 15-yard touchdown pass from senior Cole Kramer to senior Karsan Kirkman. The Warriors didn't score again until late in the fourth quarter, when Kramer ran in a 26-yard touchdown.
Sonasi scored a 26-yard rushing touchdown to start the third-quarter scoring for Granger. Webb had the biggest chunk play of the evening later in the third with his 72-yard touchdown run. Welchman threw a 32-yard TD pass to junior La'auli Figiel.
The final touchdown for the Lancers came from Sonasi's 5-yard run to end the third quarter.
Fifita said the game flipped at halftime for Granger because the coaches gave a message that they needed to discipline themselves and "work as a team."
"After we had that little talk, little session inside the locker room, we came back out and balled out," Fifita said.
There wasn't much defense on either side to start the game. Granger's kickoff return almost went 91 yards for a touchdown had it not been for a holding penalty. Still, Fifita ran it 42 yards for a touchdown on the very next play.
Taylorsville punched back with its biggest play of the game — a 67-yard touchdown pass from Kramer to senior Brighton Wilde. It only took five plays for the Lancers to score again, this time on Webb's 31-yard run. Kramer's 21-yard TD pass to Kirkman tied the game at 13 all.
Granger has just two games left in its regular season before the 5A tournament starts. If things continue as they have for the past two weeks, the cheerleading squad could have muscles that rival those of the football players.
"I think it's just more tiring than us playing inside the field," Fifita said of the cheerleading team's pushup duties.
But as long as the Lancers keep winning, Simo won't mind the extra workout.
"It's worth it," Simo said.
