Brooke Tyburski is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Northwest Christian High School for AZPreps365.com.

A fumble by Northwest Christian on the opening kickoff return set the stage early for the Benjamin Franklin Chargers, who defeated the Crusaders, 21-10, and handed them their first loss of the season.

The victory was redemption for the Chargers, whose season was ended by the Crusaders last year in a crushing 35-7 loss in the 2018 AIA State Football Championships. Northwest Christian won both of their meetings with Benjamin Franklin last season, beating them 21-13 in the regular season.

Northwest Christian scored all their points in the first half with quarterback Easton Meier gaining 22 yards on a quarterback draw that set up a 7-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Adams with 1:43 remaining in the first quarter. A 49-yard completion by Blake Sparks to Adams set the Crusaders up for a 27-yard field goal by kicker Liam O’Neil just before halftime.

The Crusaders played without their starting quarterback for half the game as Meier suffered an arm injury on a 15-yard run late in the second quarter and did not return. Sophomore quarterback Blake Sparks was thrown into the game and completed 4 of 11 passes for 71 yards and one interception.

“We tried to play to his strengths,” head coach David Innes said of Sparks. “The biggest thing we did was try to settle down with what he was comfortable with, and our guys can do that. He did a good job. He was thrown into the fire.”

Northwest Christian struggled throughout the night with penalties, racking up four penalties at halftime totaling 40 yards. Those penalties set up a short field for Benjamin Franklin in the second quarter, allowing them to take the lead.

An 83-yard drive by Benjamin Franklin at the start of the second half ate up 10:15 off the game clock, resulted in a touchdown and gave Northwest Christian hardly any possession time in the third quarter.

“That was our highlight 10 minutes,” Benjamin Franklin head coach Dave Jefferies said. “That’s our game plan, to try to chew clock, especially when we’re up.”

Other missed opportunities for the Crusaders included a missed field goal on their first drive, a fumble, an interception by Danner Bowen, and failure to convert on three fourth downs.

Northwest Christian totaled 217 yards for the night with 113 coming through the air.

Benjamin Franklin’s offense focused on its ground game with the Chargers earning 211 rushing yards. Quarterback Danner Bowen shined in this matchup, having 12 carries for 73 yards and a touchdown, as well as throwing for a 15-yard touchdown.

The victory improved their record to 4-0. 

“This is huge,” Bowen said. “They came in being the state champs last year, they’ve won 14 straight games and we knew we had to come in hard even though they lost some seniors last year.”

The loss dropped Northwest Christian’s record to 2-1 and ended their 14-game win streak after winning the state championship last season. The state championship team included many seniors, making this year’s roster a lot younger and less experienced.

“Young team, we got better tonight,” Innes said. “We have 18 new starters from last year.

“We’re going to get better because of what we’re going to watch tomorrow. We’re going to practice our mistakes next week. We never ever talk about winning them all. We just want to win the right ones.”

Innes said Meier could be out for a couple weeks, but is hoping that it is not much longer than that.

Next week Northwest Christian faces American Leadership Academy- Gilbert North (2-2), who is coming off a 40-10 win against Gilbert Christian. Last season the Crusaders crushed the Eagles, 48-7.

Benjamin Franklin will put its undefeated record on the line next Friday at Coolidge. The Bears also have a 4-0 record.