American Samoan Players of the Week

Players of the week hail from Lions' win over Sharks

by Brian Vitolio

Leone's 36-6 dominanting win over the Sharks last Saturday produced this week's players of the week on offense and defense.

The offensive award was a no-brainer after a 152-yard rushing and three-touchdown performance by the Lions' Afasene Tasi. He finished with a total of 12 carries.

Tasi scored on runs of four yards, 44 and seven yards. He set up his first touchdown by running for 35 yards and 10 on two separate occasions.

He is the third straight back to torch the Sharks with more than 100 yards gained on the ground and also the third straight to get the offensive player of the week nod for such a feat.

Defensively, Joseph Salave'a of Leone got the nod with a total of 7.5 tackles against Samoana last Saturday. Six of those were unassisted tackles.

Salave'a was a huge factor defensively for Leone in helping to shut down the Sharks' rushing game. Samoana did not reach more than 50 yards from their ground attack, and most of the time they were tackled behind the line of scrimmage.

The DOE Athletics office also named junior varsity players of the week for last Friday's games.

Leone's Arona Tulafono got the nod for offense after gaining 172 yards on 17 carries in their 8-3 win against the Tafuna Warriors last Friday. He also scored two touchdowns, one of them from 38 yards out.

For defense, Samoana's Fiatele Niuoka was named J-V defensive player of the week after recording seven tackles in their 22-14 win against the Vikings. He assisted on two tackles while recording six solos.

All of these players, with the exception of Tasi, are first timers to the award. Tasi won it while playing junior varsity football last year.