Ryan Schwager is a student journalist at the Walter Cronkite school at Arizona State University assigned to cover the Desert Vista football team.

The Desert Vista Thunder improved to 2-1 early in the season after pummeling Valley Vista 41-7 Friday night.

The Thunder defensive unit, led by senior linebacker Braeden Belnap, held junior Burton Delay IV and the Monsoon to just seven points while the offensive output led to a 34 point margin of victory. The Thunder have scored 35 points or more in every game to start the 2019 season.

“This week, we’ve been pushing each other hard in practice,” Belnap said. “We just had to come together as a team and finetune all the little things after that heartbreaking loss in California.”

Even if the game eventually felt one-sided, the focus was always "the little things." After leading by 14 points at the half and entertaining a shutout, coach Dan Hinds preached to his team that the little things were what what going to win the game.

“He just said the little things, like ‘The defense has to make plays,' ‘Our defensive line has to make plays,’ and ‘We have to block better,' ” junior Taron Thomas said. “It’s the little things that get us going.”

After going three-and-out on their first drive, the Thunder scored on their next thanks to good field position once they picked off Delay for the first time. Quarterback Parker Navarro fired a strike to an open Belnap in the endzone for the first touchdown.

The Thunder would pick off Delay again on the very next drive, leading to a 31-yard touchdown run by sophomore running back Devon Grubbs. This was one of three touchdowns scored by the Grubbs brothers.

Coming out of halftime with a 14-0 lead, Navarro led a nine-play, 69-yard drive. Grubbs found the endzone on a jet sweep from the Valley Vista 8-yard line, making it 20-0.

There was cause for concern, however. After the Monsoon drove down the field and cut the lead to 20-7, Navarro couldn’t handle a low snap and the Monsoon recovered the fumble at their own nine.

That was when defensive end Michael Thomas dropped back into coverage and picked off Delay for his third interception. Thomas took it right back to the endzone, and the score was 27-7.

The Thunder would add 14 more points in the fourth quarter, sealing the big win.

Desert Vista plays North High School at home next week.