In a brutal defensive battle, the Westlake Thunder draw first blood in Utah County's newest football rivalry with a 21-3 victory over the Pioneers of Lehi on Friday night.

Both teams played each other to a stalemate offensively in the first half but the Thunder, who have a reputation for halftime adjustments, got going once the second half began.

About halfway through the third quarter, the tide turned drastically when a muffed snap by Lehi was recovered by Westlake's Moana Ofahengae and run back 15 yards for a touchdown. That Ignited the crowd and putting the Thunder up 7-0, which in turn alleviated some of the pressure off of sophomore quarterback John Ursua's shoulders, who looked to be pressing too hard in the first half.

Lehi would answer back at the start of the fourth quarter with a 70-yard drive that was capped off by a 32-yard field goal by sophomore Garrett Bayles, giving the Pioneers some confidence offensively after a rough first half.

Westlake really locked down defensively following that drive. The defensive line was powerful and forced Lehi quarterback Palmer Page to roll out and scramble on virtually every pass play. Safeties Addison Bates and Kayden Jones suffocated any running holes that were made by Lehi and also made life easier on the Thunder corners by never allowing the Pioneer wideouts to beat them over the top.

Westlake all but ended any hope Lehi had when they went up 14-3 on a 1-yard Ursua run, who ran for over 100 yards on the day, a number that is deceptive considering 145 total rush yards were called back because of penalties. Ursua was virtually a one-man-show for the Thunder in the second half.

"We came out with a lot of emotion tonight," Westlake coach Jason Walker said after the game. "Defensively we wanted to show them multiple fronts and different kinds of blitzes. And the blitzes we did bring were effective and definitely confused them."

Following a Lehi fumble that was recovered by Westlake with 30 seconds left, the Thunder chose to start their new found rivalry off with a bang. Instead of kneeling the ball and running the time out, Ursua hit Brandon Aldstadt in the end zone to put the Thunder up 21-3, putting an exclamation point on an already satisfying victory.

When asked about who his game ball would go to, Walker said,"Our defense played incredible tonight, it's gotta go to them. They shut them down. All of our team signed the game ball before the game though. It was our first rivalry with the team to the East and we were all out there together tonight."