Joseph Eigo is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Westwood High School for AZPreps365.com 

 

MESA-- With nine starters out for Westwood, Friday night's game at Red Mountain High School at times resembled a race between a Ferrari and a Honda Civic. 

In front of a packed home crowd, the Mountain Lions put it into full gear from opening kickoff and defeated the Westwood Warriors 42-7 Friday night in Mesa behind a speedy attack from the their wide receivers and running backs. 

According to Westwood head coach Kyle Ide, the Warriors had 12 total players out Friday with injuries or COVID-19, not an ideal situation coming into a game against a very talented Red Mountain team. The Warriors' depleted defense often looked overwhelmed by Red Mountain’s offense. The game got out of hand very quickly, as the Mountain Lions notched 42 points just three minutes into the second quarter. 

“That’s a really good football team, take nothing away from them,” said coach Ide. “Red Mountain is a better football team than us, but they aren’t that much better."

Red Mountain got the scoring underway very quickly, notching two touchdowns within the first three minutes. The first was a Lenox Lawson three-yard run and the second a one-yard run by Caprice Calhoun. Lawson’s quick feet on the ground set the pace for the Mountain Lion offense, leaving defenders in the dust all evening. 

“We just tried to worry about ourself, we tried to gameplan and do some things," said coach Ide when asked how Westwood prepared for Red Mountain’s speed, "but the problem is there’s things that we can do but our guys aren’t mentally prepared to do them.”

Westwood’s offense struggled early, only crossing midfield once in the first half. The Warriors had a second-and-one inside Red Mountain territory. Then a series of miscues by Westwood turned that second-and-one into third-and-36. 

Warrior quarterback Gavin Letourneau often had little time to pass. On a major chunk of Westwood’s offensive plays, Red Mountain’s pass rushers were running through the Warriors line like turnstiles. Obviously for Westwood, it was very tough to get in a rhythm offensively. 

“It’s tough when you’re missing three of your starting O-lineman to injury,” said Letourneau. “We had our guys, they stepped up and tried their best that they can. I have no hard feelings towards them, I understand they’re young, I get what they’re going through, but it is pretty hard to adjust to that. 

Red Mountain's four-star wide receiver Ja’kobi Lane made his presence more than known Friday. After dropping a wide-open touchdown late in the first quarter, Lane redeemed himself with a spectacular diving touchdown grab for 38 yards. Early in the second quarter the speedy Lane scored on a 69-yard touchdown run.

Another impressive display of Mountain Lion speed came from Red Mountain’s Josiah Villanueva on a long touchdown run which made it 35-0. 

A very quick second half seemed to be over in a blink, but Westwood did add a Ryan Willis four-yard touchdown to prevent the shutout. 

After a rough two-week stretch for Westwood, coach Ide is trying to keep his squad to keep their heads held high. 

“I told them just to stay positive, don’t let the negative creep in,” said coach Ide. “It’s really easy after a game like that, that’s not really who we are.”

Westwood will now look forward to getting their guys back from injury and illness when it takes on the Copper Canyon Aztecs at Copper Canyon High School on October 1st.