Huskies more bite than bark?

I went to Hillcrest High on Tuesday night in anticipation of witnessing longtime Judge Memorial coach Jim Yerkovich notch his 600th victory. While that story did not quite unfold as most people expected, another good story could be in the making for Hillcrest.

I was impressed with how thoroughly the Huskies dominated the tempo early on during their 52-45 victory over the defending 3A champs. And when the Bulldogs started pushing the pace and applied pressure in the fourth quarter, Hillcrest stayed composed enough to not let a 14-point lead evaporate completely in the final minutes.

The fact the Huskies held Judge to 45 points, after the Bulldogs dropped 70 on them last season, shows Hillcrest has come a long way in a year’s time.

Huskies coach Brad Tingey told me after the game he feels like his team found their roots again after last year’s forgettable 6-15 season. He said some players got away from the work ethic that helped them come out of nowhere and win 19 straight a few years ago. But now, they are doing all the little things again that made them such a tough defensive team for a two-to-three year stretch.

The victory over the Bulldogs offered evidence of that.

“It just came from effort,” Tingey said. “We worked hard for 32 minutes.”

Four-year starter Kyle Maughan thought it was a big win for Hillcrest in its home opener. But he wasn’t at all surprised by the outcome. He feels like this team is more than capable of producing similar victories down the line.

“It’s a big win, but we’ve known from the beginning of the summer we would be a good team,” Maughan said.

The big test for the Huskies will be seeing how they handle a stretch of four road games beginning with West Jordan. If Hillcrest can build some momentum for January where it faces the likes of Bingham and Riverton before starting Region 2 play, the Huskies could become the surprise team of 5A once again.

If so, what promises to be an already tight Region 2 race will get a little more interesting.