HERRIMAN — Key defensive moments can give way to offensive onslaughts, and that’s exactly what happened in the Utah Warriors 55-21 win over the NOLA Gold on Saturday.
The Warriors used a key try line stand and parlayed it into a 34-7 run over the game's final 30 minutes in what was quite the show for the always loud and supportive Zions Bank Stadium fans.
With Utah clinging to a 21-11 lead, NOLA took advantage of a defensive lapse to advance the ball just inches short of the try line. But rather than concede the potential seven points, Utah rallied in impressive fashion, showed dominance up front and threw NOLA progressively backwards, forcing NOLA into a mere penalty kick to maintain a 21-14 lead.
“I think a lot of credit has to go to James Lentjes, our defensive coach,” said Warriors Coach Greg Cooper regarding the defensive stand. “He’s worked really hard at taking this team to the next level and we call that our danger D. It’s dangerous down there and it was great to see, and it was a growth.”
To say the Warriors offensive attack took momentum from the defensive stand would be an understatement.
Just two minutes later saw Utah fullback Jordan Trainor slice his way through NOLA’s defense, scoring a try on a run that covered close to half of the field. And he did as much with a broken nose, according to Cooper, to push Utah’s lead to 28-14.
From there Joe Mano scored two tries in the 57th and 72nd minute with Nic Benn topping off the scoring with a try scored on the edge in the 78th minute. In between all of it was Tuvere Vugakoto scoring a rare try from his hooker position in the 65th minute and Joel Hodgson adding a penalty kick in the 55th.
For Mano, his two second half tries came on top of another try scored during the game’s 18th minute, for three total, giving him five tries on the season after just two matches.
So is it too early to talk about potential scoring records for Mano?
“He’s definitely taking a crack at it and it’s great to see. He has a smile on his face,” Cooper said.
While tries receive a lot of the attention, Cooper was intent to point out the work done up front by his forward line, which is led by team captain Gavin Thornbury.
“What was important to me was the intent of our line. The intent of our forwards to dominate,” Cooper said. “We know that the Utah Warriors are going to score tries, but when we can get that intent upfront then we’re capable of bigger things.”
As for Thornbury, the hulking Irishman relished the opportunity to play at Zions Bank Stadium and was happy to help lead a good show for the home crowd.
“It’s an unbelievable ground,” Thornbury said. “I’ve heard so much about it, so we were really excited and we built off that throughout the week. We wanted to show out for our fans, and I think we did well with that today.”
While it’s hard to pick holes in such a resounding win, it’s a coach’s job to do as much, and Cooper began his postgame comments alluding to as much.
“We respect NOLA immensely, but we’re still not there yet,” Cooper said. “There’s a lot of things we didn’t get quite right today, but there’s a lot of things we did get right. I thought it was a good step forward.”
With the win Utah improves to 2-0 on the season with 10 total points and will return home next week to take on the Houston Sabercats.
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