Brett Lapinski
ASU Student Journalist

Early injury proves costly for Paradise Valley in loss to Westwood

September 11, 2021 by Brett Lapinski, Arizona State University


Westwood and Paradise Valley players shake hands after the visiting Warriors won in Phoenix 55-12. (Brett Lapinski/AZPreps365)

Brett Lapinski is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Paradise Valley for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX — The beaten-up Paradise Valley Trojans looked up at the scoreboard after the final whistle to see a 55-12 loss to the Westwood Warriors. But in reality, their glimmer of hope faded away before the first quarter was over. 

Down 8-0 and trailing near of the first, junior quarterback Jaiden Mcdaniel scrambled out to the right of the pocket, but before he knew it, he laid flat on his back, clutching at his collarbone. The packed stadium fell silent as the Trojans' leader was taken off the field. Mcdaniel had just rushed for 285 yards and six touchdowns in the Trojans' comeback win last week, and just one week later, his season was over. 

Having already lost the remainder of his quarterbacks due to injury, head coach Greg Davis turned to starting running back Ryan Deonise and created an unexpected game plan on the fly.

"We just don't have the numbers and don't have the depth for something big like that to happen," Davis said. 

Deonise, however, started out quite promising by throwing a 54-yard touchdown strike to receiver Erick Reyes-Aguilera in just his second drive at quarterback, cutting the score to 8-6 with 10:07 left in the second quarter. But the Warriors soon figured out this new Trojan offense, which consisted of quarterback runs or 20-30 yard bombs to try to get the offense going. 

Down 26-6 at the half, Deonise could never get the offense rolling, and with the defense struggling heavily,  that 20-point gap quickly ballooned to a 55-6 deficit — including a Westwood interception of Deonise returned for a touchdown. 

With the game completely out of reach, Deonise was able to muster up one last drive hitting Reyes-Aguilera for 33 yards and Nick Gardner for a 35-yard completion. He capped it off with a five-yard touchdown pass to receiver Michael Ibarra in the back of the end zone, capping off the night's score at 55-12. 

Deonise finished the night completing seven of his 22 pass attempts for 147 yards and two scores. Although frustrated by the result, Davis could not have been more proud of Deonise's performance. 

"The fact that he jumped in there and did what he did was pretty amazing," Davis said. 

Already acting like a veteran quarterback, Deonise still believes this team has a lot to show for, and this loss could simply be a hiccup in the season.

"We're going to be okay," Deonise said. "You know, we got a lot of young guys, and they got kind of shocked. It's our third broken collarbone, and obviously, the morals are going to go down a little bit. But if we go in there with our heads held high, I think we can pull it together, make a game plan and continue through the rest of the season." 

The Trojans now fall to 1-1 on the season while still undefeated in conference play. 

On the other hand, the Warriors now sit at 1-1 after completely flipping the script from their first game, where they lost 34-0. Westwood head coach Kyle Ide left Friday night feeling very pleased with his team. 

"You know, we try to preach playing the full 48 minutes, and I think we finally put it together at the end of the second quarter, which led us to dominate the second half," Ide said.