Zach Woodard is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Ironwood High School for AZPreps365.com.

Head coach Chris Rizzo and the Ironwood Eagles lost a tough matchup, 38-18, against the Apollo Hawks on Friday, Oct. 1, to fall to 2-3 on the year.

After starting off 4-1 through the first five games last year, the Ironwood Eagles are having a little bit of a different feeling this year than the one of the championship-bound team they had just a year ago. After graduating 18 seniors from last year’s team, the Eagles are relying on their younger guys to step up this season.

“We have a lot of young guys playing football,” Rizzo said. “They are taking their lumps a little bit, but outside of that, they have grown. They are playing better, they are playing more together and we just look forward to what that class has for us.”

Playing under the bright lights on Friday night is not an easy task to ask of younger players, especially on a team that has what coach Rizzo calls "one of the harder 5A schedules in the Valley." The experience of the Apollo Hawks and their playmakers and the lack thereof for the Eagles was a definite difference-maker that was in full effect.

The Hawks came firing right out of the gate. On the opening kickoff, senior Daniel Delgado took a 90-yard kick return all the way back for an Apollo touchdown. Special teams would prove to be one of the weaker spots for the Eagles, allowing Apollo's kick and punt returners too many opportunities to make big plays.

“We preach that all the special teams in high school is all attitude and effort. We got some things to clean up schematically, but I just don’t think that we played with the greatest attitude or effort on special teams,” Rizzo said.

The Hawks also exploited the Eagles' run defense. Star player Adam Mohamed had a very large workload, carrying the ball over 30 times for 150 yards, also adding a late-game touchdown to his stats.

“You can’t get behind a team like that, [a team] that’s pretty dominate in the run game,” Rizzo said. “When you get behind like that you are constantly clawing back and they eat away the clock really well.”

Ironwood was able to get their run game going for them a little bit. Junior quarterback Connor Monahan was his team's leading passer and rusher, accumulating more than 300 all-purpose yards, with 75 of them on the ground. 

“They weren’t ready for my run game and I was able to make plays on my feet and also hit them a couple of times with the deep ball,” Monahan said.

The passing game was semi-successful for the Eagles, as Monahan was able to connect on 11 of his 24 passes for the night throwing for over 250 yards. But in the end, it was the Hawks' defense that won the battle, forcing multiple tackles for losses and a couple of interceptions throughout the game.

Even with the Hawks scoring on the opening kick, the game was still up for grabs. The Eagles defense played very strong through the first 30 minutes but struggled coming out of halftime, giving up 21 unanswered points in the third quarter. Two of those touchdowns came on the ground from Apollo quarterback Aiden Estill, who finished with 47 yards rushing and 161 yards in the air.

Every loss is a chance to learn and the Eagles definitely had a lot to learn after this game.

“Our defense is pretty good with a bend don’t break mentality for sure,” Ironwood running back Elias Hernandez said. “Our offense can hold up when we do the little things as well.”

Definitely some bright spots with the play of Monahan and Hernandez, combining for four touchdowns on the offensive side of the ball. Even on the other end, senior Colten Clinkenbeard was a diamond in the rough finishing with eight solo tackles, three of them for a loss.

The Eagles have an upcoming bye week and lots of time to reflect on their mistakes before their next game where they will host the Desert Edge Scorpions on Oct. 15. Just six days after that, they will have a chance at redemption where they take on the Sunrise Mountain Mustangs, the team that shattered the Eagle's chances of calling themselves 5A state champions last year.