Highland • Replicating the way sportscaster Chris Berman used to call a highlight featuring Tampa Bay running back Mike Alstott, with the concussive sounds, right timing and all, is sometimes hard to accomplish while watching a live game.
The best chance to practice these days might be when Lone Peak junior Masen Wake gets the ball.
“I’ve heard them compare me to him,” Wake said about Alstott. “I’ve watched videos on him. He’s a real cool guy.”
Wake, a 6-foot, 230-pound fullback, seems to enjoy the contact more than most and often plows through one defender to get to the next one.
Finding daylight sometimes seems secondary.
“We definitely work on him running to grass because oftentimes when he gets through the hole, he’s looking for someone to hit,” Lone Peak coach Bart Brockbank said. “Earlier in the season, there were a couple of times he was looking to jump people, and he got a couple of penalties.”
Wake has become a go-to back for the more traditional offensive attack that Lone Peak employs.
Although Brockbank expects that junior tailback Kobe Freeman will be healthy when the Knights take on East in a Class 6A state semifinal Friday, that hasn’t always been the case this season.
Freeman has 620 yards rushing this season. Wake, meanwhile, has forged ahead into the line for 1,130 yards, gaining an average of 7.3 yards per carry.
Wake rumbled for 215 yards on 28 carries in Lone Peak’s 26-17 state quarterfinal win over Weber last week
“That’s a lot for a running back in a Lone Peak offense,” Brockback said.
Too much?
“Every time he comes off [the field], he’s like, ‘I know I can run the ball, I know I can run the ball,‘” the Lone Peak coach said. “He wants 40 carries a game. That’s just his mentality.”
Wake was there as Lone Peak progressed through the playoffs last year, ultimately falling in the title game. But it was only on kickoffs that the sophomore got some action back then.
Wake is looking forward to the experience as a regular this time around.
“It’ll be way fun. The atmosphere there, there’s nothing like it,” said Wake, who is eager for his kind of on-the-field enjoyment, too. “Getting through the line, getting to those safeties and DBs — it’s so fun.”
Brockbank says that Wake normally is reserved away from the field and jokes that Wake’s hope of becoming an orthodontist would mean “He would have to talk to people.’”
But there’s no diminishing the effect that Lone Peak’s fullback has on his team when he starts running through defenders. That includes the part of the squad most known for hitting.
“As he gets going in the game, that pumps the team up,” Brockbank said. “Especially the defense. I mean, when he gets through and he has some big hits, the team feeds off that.
“He’s that player.”
CLASS 6A <br>State semifinals <br>Friday at Rice-Eccles Stadium <br>Lone Peak vs. East, 11 a.m. <br>Bingham vs. Herriman, 2:30 p.m. <br>State championship <br>Nov. 17 at Rice-Eccles Stadium <br>Semifinal winners, 2:30 p.m. <br>CLASS 5A <br>State semifinals <br>Thursday at Rice-Eccles Stadium <br>Corner Canyon vs. Skyridge, 11 a.m. <br>Springville vs. Lehi, 2:30 p.m. <br>State championship <br>Nov. 17 at Rice-Eccles Stadium <br>Semifinal winners, 6:30 p.m. <br>CLASS 4A <br>State semifinals <br>at Rice-Eccles Stadium <br>Mountain Crest vs. Stansbury, 6 p.m. Thursday <br>Sky View vs. Orem, 6 p.m. Friday <br>State championship <br>Nov. 17 at Rice-Eccles Stadium <br>Semifinal winners, 11 a.m. <br>CLASS 3A <br>State championship <br>Saturday at Weber State <br>Morgan vs. Juan Diego, 2 p.m. <br>CLASS 2A <br>State championship <br>Saturday at Southern Utah <br>South Summit vs. Beaver, 11 a.m. <br>CLASS 1A <br>State championship <br>Saturday at Southern Utah <br>Duchesne vs. Milford, 1:30 p.m.