Alex Gelman is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Carl Hayden Community High School for AZPreps365.com.

In dominant fashion, Carl Hayden High School defeated Alhambra 58-3 on the road on Thursday night.

Through the 17 mph winds and dark clouds to start the first quarter, Carl Hayden started quickly on the ground. The Falcons, led by running backs Kendre Pride and senior Christian Chavez, dominated the run game in the first half. 

“Execution all week, that’s really what it all was. Playing our game. We were really disappointed in ourselves last week. Thought we could’ve executed a lot better offensively. We knew today was a big game for us. Thursday night. All week, execution was key,” Carl Hayden head coach Steven Arenas said after the game. 

In the first half, Pride rushed for 73 yards and four touchdowns. As a team, the Falcons combined for over 170 rushing yards in the first half.

“That’s who we are. That’s what we want to do. We made a few adjustments up front, some things we needed to tweak. We really emphasized execution with our offensive line and that’s big for us. We want to do that every night. That’s who we are as a football team and we’ve got some really good backs who can push us a long way,” Arenas said about the run game. 

If it weren’t for seven first half penalties and one lone turnover, Carl Hayden could have led by an even larger margin.

All in all, Pride rushed for a total of 131 yards and five touchdowns on Thursday night. Chavez followed him with 92 yards on the ground. 

Through one half of football, the Falcons led the Lions 44-0. On the first play of the second half, Pride rushed the ball 55 yards for a touchdown. It was 51-0 after that touchdown, all Falcons.

“Being a running back, I take keys. I learn my offensive line’s blocking and their schemes. Anytime I get a running play, I know I can get a good amount of yards every single time,” Pride said. 

On the defensive side of the football, the Falcons were disruptive behind the line of scrimmage. They had four sacks on Matthew Green, quarterback for Alhambra. Jordan Talbert, who led the conference in sacks heading into Thursday night (8.0 sacks), continued to add to his total. He had 1.5 sacks against the Lions on Thursday. 

Despite a home loss to Camelback last week, the goal for Talbert has not changed.  

“Have fun and lead the team. Make sure to keep composure, don’t get too happy and stay disciplined. Keep the team composed. If we didn’t come into this game ready to win, we wouldn’t have executed,” Talbert said. 

Andrew Lopez, defensive end for Carl Hayden, had 1.5 sacks tonight as well, along with 2.5 total tackles. 

Alhambra looked to have a few opportunities on downfield passes throughout the game, but cornerbacks Jose Vasquez and Ahmad Kearney played nicely on the outside. 

“They played great. We have defensive coaching staff that is really strong. We added a couple of wrinkles in defensively for them, we changed things up a little bit and obviously we were able to lock it up,” Arenas said. 

Alhambra’s lone three points came via a 45-yard field goal with 14 seconds remaining. 

Falcons quarterback Jaime Zayas played a clean football game on Thursday night. He was 2-3 on the night passing. On the ground, Zayas rushed for 92 yards. 

Carl Hayden, now 3-2, has five games remaining in the regular season. 

“(It) starts in class. We’ve got a few players with grades down. We got to get them up so we have full and healthy team,” Talbert said.