{"id":209047,"date":"2015-08-25T06:05:13","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T20:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=209047"},"modified":"2015-08-25T06:05:13","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T20:05:13","slug":"talalemotu-poised-to-start-for-vikings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/talalemotu-poised-to-start-for-vikings\/","title":{"rendered":"Talalemotu poised to start for Vikings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CNMI\u2019s Savali Talalemotu is likely to make it to the starting unit of Portland State University and is dedicating the Vikings\u2019 season opener to Saipan.<\/p>\n

In a report written by Nate Bynum for KATU Sports, the reporter said PSU head coach Bruce Barnum has seen significant improvement from Talalemotu since he suited up for the Vikings in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe immediately made an impact at PSU, starting four games last season. He\u2019s anchoring a defensive line that\u2019s the strength of PSU\u2019s team. He’ll likely be a starter this year,\u201d Bynum said in his report.<\/p>\n

The Vikings will play its first game of the season on Sept. 5 against Washington State in Pullman and in a separate message sent to Saipan Tribune yesterday, Talalemotu said he is looking forward to their first match.<\/p>\n

\"Savali<\/a>
Savali Talalemotu, right, in action during a preseason game with Portland State University last year. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe are halfway through camp and so far it looks like I have a good chance to start. I started the last four games last year, but you never know,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Talalemotu, who used to play basketball and football for Beaverton High School and won third team All-Metro League honors as a defensive end, added he will have his family and the victims of Typhoon Soudelor on his mind when they collide against Washington State.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to say to all the people back home and all my family that I’m doing this for them. I wish I could be home to help everyone but I can\u2019t. I will be thinking of you all on Sept. 5 when we play against Washington State. I\u2019m going to play for you all so just watch,\u201d the 22-year-old player said.<\/p>\n

The son of Fa\u2019aea Talalemotu and Tamara Hunter will be playing in his junior year for the Vikings. He red-shirted for PSU in 2012 before playing his rookie year in 2013 where he served as a backup defensive end and recorded 15 tackles in the season and two tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks. Last year, he started out at defensive tackle but later moved back to defensive end where he earned praises from the Vikings\u2019 coaching staff. The 6-foot-3 player had four starts in 11 games and totaled 28 tackles, five tackles for loss, and 4.5 sacks\u2014which was tied for the team lead. He played his best game against Sacramento State last season, making 10 tackles and one sack. The former Kagman High School basketball player also had a notable performance against Idaho State after registering eight tackles and 2.5 sacks and forcing a fumble.<\/p>\n

Despite these accomplishments, Bynum said Talalemotu remained grounded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just playing, trying to get better,\u201d Talalemotu was quoted as saying in an interview with Bynum.<\/p>\n

After their opener versus Washington State, Talalemotu and company\u2019s next matches are against Idaho State on Sept. 12, Western Oregon on Sept. 26, North Dakota on Oct. 3, North Texas on Oct. 10, Montano State on Oct. 17, Cal Poly on Oct. 24, Montano on Oct. 31, Northern Colorado on Nov. 7, Southern Utah on Nov. 14, and Eastern Washington on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n

The Vikings are in NCAA Division I\u2019s Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and members of the Big Sky Conference. They hold their home games at Providence Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CNMI\u2019s Savali Talalemotu is likely to make it to the starting unit of Portland…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":209049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6693,6694,6695,2443],"class_list":["post-209047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-idaho-state","tag-psu","tag-savali-talalemotu","tag-washington-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}