A Valley wide surprise last season, Corona Del Sol finished the 2020 regular season 8-0 and with a berth in the Open Division.

On the other side, Red Mountain rebounded from a disappointing 3-4 2020 season by winning its first three this year, outscoring opponents 116-10.

In a big non-region 6A matchup, Red Mountain came in and took care of business. Despite playing a very scrappy Corona Del Sol team, the Mountain Lions delivered a comfortable 28-7 road victory Friday night.

“This is the best 0-2 team we will ever play,” Red Moiuntain coach Mike Peterson said pregame.

The defense of the Aztecs did what they could, holding Red Mountain to a one possession lead at the end of the first.

The only scoring being a Carter Crispin six yard pass to Josiah Villanueva that was set up by a deep shot from Crispin to Ja’kobi Lane. There’s a lot of chemistry between Red Mountain’s top players, Lane, Crispin and Lenox Lawson, who have played together since they were seven years old.

The Aztecs have a first-year varsity starter at quarterback, Conor Ackerley, and their top running back from 2020 transferred. Ackerley attempted 33 passes over the last two weeks coming into Friday’s contest.

Before the game, coach Jon Becktold said, “We are looking into cutting down on turnovers and getting Ackerley more comfortable in the offense.”

After his first two drives ended with punts, Ackerley connected with Jeff Lambert on a 25-yard catch and run. But Lambert fumbled at the end of the reception. But the turnover didn’t result in immediate points for the Mountain Lions, as both teams traded punts, including a quarterback pooch punt from Crispin that was blocked.

Despite the stifling Aztec defense and great field position for the Mountain Lions, the score remained 7-0 until under 6:30 remained in the 2nd quarter. That’s when Crispin found Villanueva for a 51-yard catch and run to go up 14-0.

After another three and out by the Aztec offense, Peterson dug deep into the playbook to set up a double pass from Crispin to Lane, who then threw it to Lawson for a 28-yard strike, putting the Mountain Lions up 21-0 at the half. A missed 40-yard field goal by Carston Kieffer kept the Aztecs scoreless in the first half.

Red Mountain returned the opening second half kickoff to the house but was called back due to a penalty, one of many on the night. Penalties are an issue that Peterson says he and his coaching staff are working on.

“We focused this week on penalties,” Peterson said. “At practice we carried yellow skull caps around and threw them to clean up those errors. We still have some work to do on those that are costing our team. I can tolerate the playing hard penalties, but the talking and jawing penalties I cannot tolerate. We sat two kids for those kinds of penalties, but we will learn how to play the right way.”

Red Mountain finished their scoring night with a Lawson 57-yard run at the end of the 3rd to cap his great outing.

“We had a rough year last year to go along with a bad mindset,” Lane said. “But this year we knew we had to come out fighting and swinging. This team is going to do some big things and shock the people of Arizona by doing something great.”

The Aztecs did find their way on the board with under two minutes to go, but the ensuing onside kick did not bounce their way.

Crispin finished with two touchdown passes to Villanueva, and Lawson scored twice, one on the ground and the other on the gadget play from Lane. With their success in 2020, many were looking for a promising 2021 campaign from the Aztecs. But they have been outscored 92-68. Two of their losses were by a combined three points, though.

Corona Del Sol will look to rebound on the road against Desert Vista next week, as Red Mountain looks to keep its winning streak alive at home versus Westwood.