Cesar Chavez is looking to get back to a .500 record when it hosts the Mountain Ridge Mountain Lions on Friday.

Coming off a tough loss to Queen Creek, Cesar Chavez is looking to rebound against a Mountain Ridge team that is winless on the year and is coming off a shutout loss of its own against Westview.

Even though he was disappointed with the result, Cesar Chavez coach Manuel Alcantar was encouraged by his team’s play last week, especially when considering its blowout loss to Red Mountain the week before.

“They played better than last week,” he said, “we’re still a very young team with only eight seniors on a team of about 45 kids. They are improving every week, and we just need to find a way to get over the hump.”

When asked about what they are specifically trying to improve going into this week’s game, Alcantar said he wants his team to protect the ball so they can stay in the field and finish drives.

“We need to finish what we started,” he said. “I think we were able to put together some nice drives (last week), but we just could not finish once we got into the red zone.”

For Cesar Chavez to finish drives and take advantage of more scoring opportunities, it will likely fall on the shoulders of its quarterback.

Quarterback Lucas Arnds threw four interceptions in last week’s loss, including two in the red zone. Those mistakes, however, did not seem to be caused by poor decisions, but rather poor throws.

Arnds was inconsistent at best with his ball placement, making several high throws throughout the night, but that was likely due to him rushing his throws.

If Arnds is able to take a little more time and have his feet set underneath him when he throws, a lot of those high passes from last week could become completions.

He was also able to establish a good rapport with receiver Jaleel Walker in the second half of the loss to Queen Creek, connecting on several passes before the offense stalled out near the red zone. If this connection continues to thrive, Walker may be in for a huge game against Mountain Ridge.

In the ground game, running back Andrew Blitzke should continue to be a bright spot for this Cesar Chavez offense. While Queen Creek was able to contain him enough throughout the game to pull out the victory, it could not stop him from ripping off several impressive runs throughout the game, including a long touchdown run in the third quarter to keep the game close.

On defense, their biggest problem against Queen Creek was stopping running back Dylan Borja, as he scored three touchdowns and gashed the Cesar Chavez front seven all night long.

That front seven might have an even tougher time this week, though, as linebacker Josh Garcia is out this week, according to Alcantar.

Cesar Chavez Athletic Director Leonard Doerfler said Garcia suffered a concussion in last week’s loss, resulting in a scary scene where he was taken by stretcher off the field.

“He’s doing well,” Doerfler said. “He actually went home that night and has been getting better. He should be back in about a week.”  

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Cesar Chavez High School.