Big plays on defense sends Orem past Timpview in 5A second round
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- Orem’s Easton Kojima (44) celebrates scoring a touchdown with teammate Lopeti Moala in a 5A football state second round game against Timpview on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Timpview’s Cole Engemann (right) gets rid of a pass under pressure from Orem’s Easton Kojima in a 5A football state second round game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Orem’s Lopeti Moala (91) rushes at Timpview’s Ian Aloisio in a 5A football state second round game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Orem’s Brock Hawkins (21) reaches to break up a pass to Timpview’s Steel Richards in a 5A football state second round game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Orem’s Easton Kojima (center) finds a hole near the goal line against Timpview in a 5A football state second round game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Orem’s Mack Ellison races into the Timpview secondary in a 5A football state second round game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Timpview’s Oliver Rueckert (right) dives at Orem quarterback Tayden Ka’awa in a 5A football state second round game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- A young Orem High football fan stands on the sidelines in full gear on Halloween (Oct. 31, 2025) at a 5A state playoff game against Timpview.
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- Orem students react during a 5A football state second round game against Timpview on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Captains for Orem (left) and Timpview shake hands before the start of a 5A football state second round game n Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
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- Orem’s Aia Galaei (1) runs against Timpview in a 5A football state second round game on Friday, Oct. 31, 2025.
There are a lot of disruptors on the Orem defense.
Linebacker Boston Kojima and defensive end Lopeti “Juni” Moala are two of the best.
Kojima and Moala both made big defensive plays that led to first-half scores for the No. 4 seed Tigers, who powered past No. 13 Timpview 40-22 Friday in the second round of the 5A playoffs.
Kojima recovered a fumble on the T-Birds first offensive snap and four plays later blasted over the goal line on a 2-yard run for a 7-0 lead just two minutes into the game.
“We play as a family,” Kojima said. “We’re always going to have that mentality to just play mean and play fast, and we all do it together.”
Orem led 19-10 late in the first half when Moala — a BYU commit — latched onto a Timpview pass that had been tipped into the air. That led to a Tayden Ka’awa touchdown pass to Beck Coy for a 26-10 halftime lead.
“It’s just trusting each other every day,” Moala said. “We’re at practice and we’re talking every day, talking about what we did wrong and what we did right. We do that every day and we make a connection. So he (Kojima) is playing off me and I’m playing off him.”
Kojima, Moala and the rest of the Orem defense have been extremely stingy lately, allowing just 22 points in its past six games. Timpview managed 22 but the last six came on the final play of the game against the Tigers reserves.
Orem caused three turnovers (two interceptions and a fumble recovery) and recorded a safety in the first half against Timpview.
“The defensive philosophy is to always be flying around making plays, and I love what they’re doing right now,” Orem head coach Lance Reynolds Jr. said. “Coach Arnold (defensive coordinator Josh Arnold) has been preaching for a while not to get complacent. Working our way down that last stretch of region, it felt like we were kind of rolling and rolling and rolling. But we knew we’d get challenged at times.
“I’m proud of our guys. They did a great job today. They made a lot of plays and created a lot of turnovers early. Whether that was us making a great play or them making a mistake, we’ll take it. We had a number of times that we needed big plays and they stepped up.”
Leading 7-0, Aisa Galeai’s punt was downed at the Timpview 1-yard line. The Orem defense swarmed all over a T-Bird rushing attempt and got the safety for a 9-0 lead.
Timpview cut the deficit to 9-7 just before the end of the first quarter on a 20-yard pass from Cole Engemann to Dennis Tuaone. The two teams exchanged field goals before Moala’s interception set up another score and a 26-10 Orem lead at the break.
The Tigers got a 29-yard touchdown run from Max Stonebraker to make the score 33-10 with 3:49 to play in the third quarter. Engemann connected with Braxton Wilkerson on a 16-yard scoring pass to pull Timpview to within 33-16 early in the fourth, but Orem answered with a 45-yard touchdown pass from Ka’awa to tight end Kai Wesley and the Tigers led 40-16.
Orem (9-2) will host No. 5 Woods Cross in a quarterfinal matchup next Friday. The Wildcats held off No. 12 Olympus 13-6 in the second round.
“We’ve got things that are happening that outside of just thousands of repetitions, you can’t really fix right away, like dropped balls killed us in the first half,” Reynolds said. “I think we had five in our first three series. That’s just unheard of. You just can’t execute that poorly and expect to move the ball. Now, on the other hand, when we do get things rolling, it’s really hard to stop us, so we’ve just got to find a way to play that way early in a game.
“But give our guys credit. They were being told that it wasn’t beautiful, and they continued to fight, and continued to battle. They came out and started playing a lot better.”
