Providence Academy high school football uses size, rushing attack to top Mound Westonka

Abu Tarawallie, Providence Academy’s massive and talented defensive tackle, sat on the visitors’ bench in the immediate aftermath of the Lions’ convincing 14-3 victory over Mound Westonka on Friday.

The 6-4, 270-pound lineman, who appears even larger in uniform, was in no hurry to get to the bus for the drive back to the school.

He wanted to enjoy this victory, one in which the Lions physically dominated play in front of an overflow homecoming crowd enjoying a blissful, early-fall evening.

A University of Minnesota commit, Tarawallie is accustomed to being the center of attention whenever he plays.

Fans point him out, and opponents stare and size him up. Meanwhile, offensive coordinators scheme in deliberate ways to counter him.

It doesn’t matter to Tarawallie that he rarely gets a moment’s peace. He knows that time spent focusing on him simply means his defensive teammates get to feast on opportunities.

“I get a lot of double and triple teams,” Tarawallie said. “And honestly, I love it. For the first four games, my teammates have been going free because everybody has been focusing on me. I don’t really do it for the stats, so it’s fine by me. I’ll let my teammates work all day.”

Fellow defensive linemen, like 285-pound sophomore Jon Wiseman and 6-5 junior end Matthew Hunter, know that as long as Tarawallie is lined up next to them, they’re going to get the chance to shine.

“It give us a lot of confidence,” said Hunter, also a tight end who caught a beautifully-thrown fade pass from quarterback Magnus Hunter early in the second quarter for the game’s first touchdown. “With a defense like this, we know we’re going to have great field position every time.”

Running back Grant Sander scored Providence Academy’s other touchdown, plowing into the end zone from 3 yards out. The touchdowns were sandwiched around Mound Westonka’s only score of the night, a 26-yard field goal by Chase Lee.

The Lions turned the ball over three times, twice deep in enemy territory, but fortunately, their defense carried them. In four games, the Lions have twice held opponents to three points and have allowed a total of 37 points.

“That feels really good, especially since [Mound Westonka] had scored 40 in all three of their other games,” Hunter said. “It shows what we can do.”

Mound Westonka coach Nick David was impressed. His team suffered its first loss of the season. The White Hawks made a few mistakes, but most of those were because of Providence Academy’s defense.

“They fly to the ball. They’re well-coached and they do some really great things over there,” David said. “And Tarawallie does a good job controlling the line of scrimmage. There were a couple of times when we shot ourselves in the foot, but that’s a really well-coached team.”