The Highland Rams defeated the Salem Hills Skyhawks on Saturday October 31st by a score of 41-7.  This was especially significant for the Rams who lost to Salem Hills in the first round last year by a Salem Hills team led by five star recruit Porter Gustin.  This year however, Salem Hills did not have the powerful Gustin leading the team, and were easily handled by the determined Rams who have made it past the first round of the playoffs for the first time in recent history.

Salem Hills was the first team to strike with a receiving TD late in the first quarter.  The Rams responded quickly with QB James Pembroke punching in a TD as time expired in the first quarter.  After that, it was all Highland who went on to score 34 unanswered points with TDs from Christian Garcia, another by Pembroke, David Nonu, Ryan Lambson, and Talo Latu, which was all capped off with two Highland field goals.  Split between rushing and receiving TDs, the Highland offense was firing on all cylinders on Saturday.

Besides the offense putting up huge numbers, the defense preformed extremely well, only allowing the Skyhawks to score one early touchdowns.  The Highland secondary had some key breakups from the Skyhawks’ primary offensive weapon in the highly recruited receiver Cooper Smith.  The Rams’ line, led by Jayden Palauni, also put huge pressure on the Skyhawks’ QB, forcing him to run to try and escape the pocket over and over again.

“It feels great to finally get past the first round.  The O-Line looked good today and so did James Pembroke (shoutout to the YAC boys),” Palauni said after the game.

The Rams look to continue their season this Friday, November 6th vs Corner Canyon at Highland (time TBA).