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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS | SEPTEMBER 14, 2022
Sports & Recreation
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www.ahwatukee.com Mountain Pointe unable to contain Arbor View in loss
BY ZACH ALVIRA AFN Sports Editor
Mountain Pointe had high expectations heading into Saturday’s contest against Las Vegas’ Arbor View in the Polynesian Classic.
The Pride were coming off of one of its best offensive performances in recent memory against Valley Vista a week prior. They thought they had the opportunity to replicate that — at least to some extent — against the Aggies, one of Nevada’s top programs.
Instead, Mountain Pointe was met with a defense with top-notch run-stopping ability and an offense that has a stable of running backs that can all share lead-back duties. Those two team traits led Arbor View to a 45-16 win over the Pride on Saturday night at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas.
“The way they played down hill and were physical against our young guys, I think we didn’t get timing,” Mountain Pointe coach Eric Lauer said. “We’re rhythmic and they took us out of our rhythm. We had some spurts but we never really picked up and
Arbor View’s Makhi Donaldson rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns Saturday night against Mountain Pointe in the Polynesian Classic at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas.
(Christopher Trim/AFN Contributor) got going like we wanted to.”
Mountain Pointe found success on the ground early on in the game. The Pride’s no-huddle offense kept the Aggie defense on their heels.
One-by-one, the trio of Jay’len Rushing, Christian Clark and Randle Parker gouged the Arbor View for big gains. Mountain Pointe’s offensive line, led by senior left guard Kahua Leha, got enough push up front and sealed off running lanes for the Pride’s stable of backs to squeeze through.
But even after a long drive that set up the Pride at the 1-yard line, Mountain Pointe was forced to settle for a field goal. It was the first of three total in the first half as every opportunity to get into the end zone was met with self-inflicted mistakes.
“We had a lot of mistakes, but I don’t want anybody pointing fingers,” Rushing said. “We have a lot to fix. We have to talk about a lot of things. But we won’t be in
seePRIDE page 33
Desert Vista falls to 0-2 with loss to Perry
BY LANCE HARTZLER AFN Contributing Writer
Dropped passes, overthrows and poor blocking played key roles Friday night as Desert Vista fell to 0-2 on the season after a 28-7 loss to Perry.
The Thunder are still looking for their first win with head coach Nate Gill at the helm. A tough loss last week to Madison out of San Diego was, what they thought, a turning point to improve against the Pumas. While there were some bright spots, most notably when Desert Vista was able to drive deep into Puma territory, the Thunder couldn’t finish drives.
“Obviously conditions didn’t go our way,” junior quarterback Braxton Thomas said. “Offense we were really spotty. We showed a lot of good stuff but in the end, we just shot ourselves in the foot and couldn’t finish drives. Our defense played their (butts) off the whole game … We need to come out hotter. We can’t wait until the third quarter to start moving the ball.”
Desert Vista’s lone score of the game came late when Thomas found junior Roan Martinez on a 61-yard touchdown pass. But at that point, the Pumas were already up by three scores.
It was the type of outing Perry coach Joseph Ortiz wanted from his group, who he routinely asks to take the season one game at a time but to also savor the wins. Afterall, winning is fun. The team enjoys the moment, and he wants them to feel that before getting back to work the next week.
“This group has bought in, we are ready to go,” Ortiz said. “The next goal is 3-0 and we just got to keep winning … Winning is fun. I think coming in we just have a winning culture. We know how to Desert Vista junior quarterback Braxton Thomas didn’t sugar coat his team’s performance against Perry Friday night. They made mistakes that killed drives and kept them out of the end
this position again.”
Dropped passes, penalties and miscues on special teams — including two blocked punts and not fielding a kickoff from Arbor View — allowed the Aggies to take over the game.
The Pride defense held strong in the first half, limiting them to 17 points — a field goal and two rushing touchdowns from Makhi Donaldson. But Arbor View’s offense came out of the halftime break on a mission to establish dominance on the ground.
And they did.
Richard Washington punched in a touchdown from 4 yards out. A blocked punt was then fielded by Mario Rivas and taken in for another score. David Washington then became the third Aggie ball-carrier to find the end zone on a 1-yard plunge. Arbor View’s only passing touchdown came late in the game when Mountain Pointe coach Eric Lauer said mistakes were costly for the Pride’s offense Saturday night against Arbor View. (Christopher Trim/AFN Contributor) Alonzo Balderrama, who came in for an injured Michael Kearns, found Richard for a 51-yard score.
Arbor View rushed for 248 yards and four touchdowns as a team. Nine different players ran the ball with Donaldson getting most of the workload with 11 carries for 115 yards and two touchdowns.
“We came out to do what we do best, which is running the ball,” Donaldson said. Arbor View coach Matt Gerber was impressed with his team’s overall performance. He knew limiting Mountain Pointe’s offense would be a tough task with quarterback Chris Arviso’s ability to escape pressure and quick release.
The Aggies kept Arviso, who was coming off of a 401-yard, five touchdown performance last week, at bay. He finished 8-of-22 for 121 yards and two interceptions. His lone passing touchdown came late in the game on a 4-yard out route to wideout Jaylen Johnson.
Mountain Pointe’s potent rushing attack was also corralled. Rushing had 12 carries for 53 yards while Clark and Parker combined for nine carries and 40 yards.
“They we’re running that no-huddle on us and it kinda caught us off guard a lit-
THUNDER from page 32
get things done and it has resonated with the kids. And now that we are showing that we can win too, together, I think the kids are gaining more and more confidence which is good.”
The Pumas secured that early season goal with a 28-7 win over hosting Desert Vista Friday night in Ahwatukee – a little later than expected as a lightning delay pushed kickoff to about 7:40 p.m. That same storm system forced issues around the Valley, some postponements, and many other delays throughout the night.
It also forced the Pumas to change things up. Originally, Ortiz said, the game plan was focused on the passing game and letting quarterback Jack Amer do damage through the air. When the rain started falling midway through the first, the Pumas went to a more ground-and-pound style. It worked just fine. The Pumas’ two offensive scores came via the ground game off the legs of running back Maddox Ford – roughly 20 yards out in the first quarter to open the scoring – and Amer – who scored from 11 yards out late in the second quarter.
“Our whole game plan was throwing the ball, but when it is pouring you can’t throw the ball,” Ortiz said. “We were able to make a quick in-game adjustment and run the ball and run up and down the field Desert Vista’s defense was unable to corral Perry senior quarterback Jack Amer, as the Pumas managed to build to a big lead and hold off the Thunder in the end. (Jack Beasley/AFN Contributor) at will for the most part.”
The offense was clean, with minimal mistakes throughout despite just the two scores due to a stingy Desert Vista defense and less-than-ideal weather conditions. But where Perry really shined, was defense and special teams.
The Pumas got scores from both of those units, and both were momentum halters. Just when Desert Vista was getting a groove going late in the third quarter, deep into Perry territory, Thunder QB Braxton Thomas was gang tackled by a pack of Puma defenders. The ball popped out right to Gage Hatch who scooped it for a 76-yard touchdown return and a 21-0 lead. “They had a great week of work,” Ortiz said of his defense. “We had a great walkthrough on Monday, hard practice on Tuesday and Wednesday and were locked in and dialed on what Desert Vista was doing.” Not long after, the Thunder finally found some offense off the heels of a Thomas touchdown pass to Roan Martinez to cap tle,” Gerber said. “The big thing was our d-line started to get some stops. Our guys were getting a push and getting too deep. We told them we have to get ankles deep and let our backers clean it up. It stopped creating those lanes they had those first couple of drives.”
Several Mountain Pointe leaders addressed the team following the loss, including Rushing. Their message was simple: No excuses and they have to fix their mistakes.
The Pride will face Chaparral on a short week Friday in their home-opener. The Firebirds gave up over 500 yards rushing to a single Williams Field running back last week in their loss.
While that can give Mountain Pointe confidence to have a bounce back performance, Lauer knows it won’t be easy.
“We always enjoy coming here to play and getting out of state and we’ll continue to do that,” Lauer said. “But when you assess the whole goal of the trip, not just the game, we definitely have a lot more work to do.”
off a short and electric drive. But, like the Pumas had done all night, they took momentum right back.
Returner Kolton Koleman, who already had an interception up to that point (his teammate postgame made sure to give him love, calling him one of the best defensive backs and wideouts in the state), wanted to make a play.
And he did, cutting through the Thunder tacklers and following his blockers for a 90-plus yard kickoff return touchdown to put the Pumas back up three scores early in the fourth quarter.
“Man, once they scored, I was like ‘I got to take this to the crib,’” he said. “I had my team behind me, they blocked well.”
With the loss, Desert Vista falls to 0-2 in Nate Gill’s first season as head coach. Thomas and the offense had some bright spots and were able to drive deep into Puma territory a handful of times but couldn’t complete drives.
The Thunder will look to right the ship next Friday at home against Centennial.
