Bennett Silvyn is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Shadow Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com.

The Shadow Mountain football team suffered another loss at the hands of Vista Grande by a score of 70-24 on Friday. The Matadors now have a record of 0-3. 

Shadow Mountain came out hot in the first half, marching down the field 64 yards on the first possession of the game.

The drive was capped off with sophomore quarterback Nico Alvarez rolling to his right and finding sophomore Joey Meyn in the front corner of the end zone. The Matadors would miss the extra point making it 6-0. 

Almost two minutes later Vista Grande responded with a 40-yard rushing touchdown by senior Tyrese Constable. It was Constable’s first of six touchdowns in the game. The Spartans also missed the extra point off a bad snap. 

With about three minutes left in the first quarter, the Spartans struck again with Constable finding the end zone on a 20-yard rush. This time the extra point was good and Vista Grande led the game 13-6. 

Just as the Spartans responded quickly, it was the Matadors’ turn. After a great kickoff return, it took only one play for Alvarez to find senior Carson Becktold for a 40-yard touchdown. Shadow Mountain went for two, running the wildcat but were unsuccessful, and they were down by one, 13-12, to the Spartans.

To open the second quarter, Vista Grande sophomore quarterback Darnell Castro found Constable for a 30-yard touchdown pass. The Spartans went for two and were successful, making it a nine-point lead. 

After forcing a punt, the Spartans scored on a one-play, 51-yard rushing touchdown by Kenyon Caldwell. The extra point was good and Vista Grande led 28-12 with nine minutes left in the second quarter.

Yet again, the Matadors managed to score in just two plays with Alvarez finding a familiar face, Becktold, for an 80-yard touchdown. That was the longest pass play for Shadow Mountain for far this season. After the extra point, the score was 28-18. 

During the play, the only thing Becktold said he could think about was “Run, just run.”

The second quarter continued with quick responses after Vista Grande found the end zone after just 30 seconds. Freshman Fernando Moya broke free on a run play and 32 yards later was in the end zone. The extra point was good and the Spartans led 35-18. 

The Matadors recovered a muffed punt and capitalized on the turnover with Alvarez finding junior Julian Collins for the 31-yard score. The lead was cut to 11 following the extra point. 

In response, Constable scored his final touchdown of the first half with a 35-yard run. The extra point attempt failed and the score going into halftime was 41-24, the Spartans leading. 

The offensive attacks for both teams in the first half were completely opposite. Shadow Mountain dominated the Spartans secondary with Alvarez throwing for 255 yards and four touchdowns on only 12 completions. Carson had 185 of those yards in the air and two touchdowns.

Alvarez said the key to his first-half performance was, “The mutual trust between my teammates and I, we just had momentum. I also came into the game wanting to find Carson and that is exactly what I did.” 

The only thing slowing down the Matadors at that point were penalties. They finished the first half with 14 penalties, accumulating 115 yards.

The Vista Grande ground game was relentless with 18 carries for 293 yards. Constable led the team in rushing in the first half with 123 yards and four touchdowns. 

In the second half, Vista Grande took over the game, scoring 29 unanswered points. The Spartans continued to punish the Matador’s defense on the ground with 213 yards in the second half, making it 506 yards for the game. Constable led the attack with 230 yards on the ground and six touchdowns. 

In addition to the great offensive performance from the Spartans, the defense held Shadow Mountain to 66 yards of offense in the second half. 

“We noticed that offensively, they [Shadow Mountain] were tiring to run the same defense as [Canyon View head coach Nick Gehrts] so we had already made the adjustment offensively,”  said Vista Grande head coach Jon Roberts. “Defensively we just had to calm everyone down and realize what they were trying to do when we went man coverage. Once we made those adjustments we started to get stops.”

Shadow Mountain will look for its first win of the season next week, hosting North at 7 p.m. on Oct 1.