By Aaron Wilson
By the time the Houston SaberCats boarded the team bus and headed to the airport, the collective feeling of another big road victory was sinking in for the defending Western Conference division champions.
The SaberCats celebrated their third win in a row after defeating the previously unbeaten Utah Warriors, 37-17, at Zion Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Now, the SaberCats have improved to 3-1 overall behind a game-high 14 points from Davy Coetzer to go along with a pair of tries from Drew Wild, a try from Tautalatasi Tasi and a breakaway from Nathan Den Hoedt.
“Coming into the game, we knew it was going to be a big, physical battle,” Pono Davis said. “It was going to be a challenge that we wanted to take on. I think we did a really good job of winning a physical battele. We did a really good job of getting our goals done for this game and coming out with the W.
“It doesn’t really matter to us what the other team is doing. We want to focus on us and what we can do and what we can control. It showed in the game. We controlled what we can do and that’s how the game ended up. It was good. We got the momentum going. That was the main thing.”
With wins over Los Angeles, Seattle and Utah, the SaberCats are starting to hit stride and click on all cylinders.
This was their second consecutive strong performance.
This marked more of a complete game, though.
They built a 20-5 halftime lead and maintained control throughout the match.
The passing was on point and was a big key to Wild’s two scores.
“The forwards put us in position to do that,” Wild said. “I feel like it’s really shifting and we’re gaining good momentum. We had a good talk during the week about being more physical than them. We controlled the game really well. It was good.”
Team captains Den Hoedt and Johan Momsen combined for a breakaway try as Momsen accelerated into the open field before passing it to Den Hoedt to cross the try zone when the defense converged on him.
“He did the hard part,” Den Hoedt said. “I pretty much fell over the line at the end. It was a good try between the two of us. He definitely did the hard part.”
Wild and Coetzer each had 18 carries and Wild had 140 meters made followed by 105 for Coetzer and 83 for Rufus McLean.
Jay Renton led the SaberCats with 76 passes.
And Emmanuel Albert led the squad with 18 tackles.
“It was most definitely a good performance, something to be proud of,” Den Hoedt said. “We beat a very strong outfit. We still left some points out there. There’s still some things to work on, but, overall, some things to be proud of.”
The SaberCats varied their lineup some this week, a strategy from veteran coach Pote Human.
“It’s good to get the rotation in and get some of the boys in there,” Davis said. “I look forward to seeing, in future weeks, different combinations and see how that camaraderie works for us and keep on geting better together.”
The SaberCats are on a bye next week.
The agenda is simple with one priority: Rest.
“We’ve obviously got a break now,” Wild said. “Rest up and take the momentum into the next block of games.”
