Aaron Schmidt is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Higley High School for AZPreps365.com 

The Higley Knights' woes continue after they took a beating from the Chaparral Firebirds by a score of 63-28 Friday night. This loss drops the Knights to 0-3 on the season, their worst start in 11 years.

The Knights were all over the place defensively, allowing 305 passing yards and 164 rushing yards. Sloppy errors on defense and special teams also helped determine the outcome of this game.

“We gave up a lot of big plays,” head coach Eddy Zubey said. “Our game plan was to play some man coverage. We wanted to put some heat on the quarterback, but they just made those plays and we didn’t. It’s something we need to get better at.”

The offense struggled as well. Quarterback Cash Merrell threw three interceptions, including a pick-six. Merrell completed 56% of his passes for 241 yards.

“I threw three picks, that’s on me,” quarterback Cash Merrell said. “We got to stop the turnovers and we got to execute on offense.”

The Knights started the night off strong, recovering a fumble early in the first quarter. It amounted to nothing, though, and it wouldn’t take long for the Firebirds to score their first of many touchdowns.

Down 14-0 late in the first quarter, wide receiver Aidan Garcia scored the first touchdown for the Knights on a nice throw from Cash Merrell. Garcia finished the game with seven catches for 142 yards, a big part of Higley’s offense.

The second quarter began with Higley’s special teams botching a punt return, which was recovered by Chaparral. That turnover ultimately led to a touchdown.

“We shot ourselves in the foot a lot,” Zubey said. “We just got to go back to the drawing board and get better as individuals, a team and a coaching staff.”

With 5:40 to go in the first half, running back Colton Allen scored Higley’s second touchdown of the night on a 58-yard rush.

“The offensive line did really well on my blocks,”  Allen said. “Just found the hole, went through it, kept running and didn’t look back.

Allen, a senior, was the star of the offense. He rushed for three of Higley’s four touchdowns and 139 yards.

“He’s been working his tail off the last few games,” Zubey said. “The last two games he’s kind of gotten pounded a lot, so it was great to see him get in the open field and run.”

The second quarter ended up being rough for the Knights, as they got stopped on offense multiple times and gave up three more touchdowns, including a pick-six. At the half the Firebirds led 42-14.

The Knights returned from halftime strong, though. Allen scored right away to make it 42-21. With 5:25 remaining in the third quarter, Allen found paydirt once more to bring the Knights within two touchdowns, 42-28. 

Things quickly fell apart from there, however. Higley surrendered three more touchdowns and ultimately lost, sending fans home disappointed.

“We need to learn from our mistakes and move forward from them,” Zubey said to the team afterward. “If we go 4-3 in our next seven games, we can make the playoffs, I expect us to get through this together. We can be a good football team.”

Each of Higley’s three losses has been by 30 or more points this season. Coach Zubey and his staff must work on improving the defense going forward.

“Learn from your opponent,” Zubey said to his team. “I promise you, I will look into our opponent this upcoming week harder than I did last week. If we’re going to turn this around, we need to do more.”

Higley looks to break into the win column and snap its losing streak when it meets the 0-3 Boulder Creek Jaguars next Friday.