David Rodish is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mesquite High School for AZPreps365.com

An eerie blood-red October moon foreshadowed the beating by Mesquite over Apache Junction 46-21 in both schools' season openers.

Friday night's temperature was warm but the Prospectors were ice cold to start. A vastly different story developed for Mesquite (1-0) as the Wildcats scored on all six possessions in the first half. Quarterback Ty Thompson led the charge, connecting at all levels with five touchdowns.

“It pretty much all worked tonight,” Mesquite coach Scott Hare said. “I don’t know if we had eight minutes of possession time.”

Both Hare and Thompson said the same thing when asked what went well on offense.

“Everything,” they said.

“My (offensive) line was doing well, my receives were catching the ball well,” Thompson said. “Everything was clicking.”

Thompson had help from his supporting cast, especially Eric Lira who reeled in the night's first two touchdowns.

“I think every starting wide receiver caught a touchdown,” Hare said.

Following Lira's touchdowns, Lavontae Trotter took a short out route 98 yards for the third score and Andrew Morris caught a deep ball down the left sideline for the fifth score of the first half.

The running backs also contributed after Thompson’s deep throws off play action provided room to operate. Chase Salisbury scored two rushing touchdowns. Fellow running back Cameron Clinton set up both scores.

As electric as the offense was, the defense was equally as strong. Apache Junction quarterback Gavin Limongello opened the field with his running ability, but the defense limited Apache Junction's scoring chances.

However, Morris was not satisfied.

“We need to fix a lot of things,” said Morris, who also plays linebacker. “We had a good idea of what they were going to do based off their scrimmage.”

Steven Celaya forces a fumble in the third quarter against Apache Junction, Friday Oct. 2 (David Rodish/AZPreps365.com).

Morris, who made plays on both sides, knows this team has a lot to improve upon before it faces a tough squad in Sunrise Mountain.

“We have a big game next week,'' he said. "We are going to go back to practice this Monday and we’re going to clean everything we can up before Sunrise Mountain."

A big concern entering Friday was Mesquite's inexperienced defensive front. The group played well; it swallowed runs and won at the point of attack for most of the night.

“They did a lot better than I expected,” Morris said. “We definitely have stuff to clean up. We’re going to clean that up (in practice) and it will look a lot better than it did today.”