Chase Heflin is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Valley Vista High School for AZPreps365.com 

PHOENIX—It is getting to be spooky and scary season for Valley Vista High School, as the Monsoon dropped their second straight 6A Southwest region game, to the Sandra Day O’Connor Eagles, on Friday night. The Monsoon entered enemy territory down eight starters and it showed. The homecoming crowd and Eagle running game proved to be too much for the Monsoon in a 49-7 blowout.

Both teams exchanged three-and-outs to begin the game, possibly foreshadowing a defensive struggle. That would not be the case.

Each school arrived with widely contrasting offensive methods. The Monsoon revealed a spread offense with the approach to put their playmakers in space with quick-hitting short passes. In contrast, the Eagles brought out the “Wing T”, an old-school, unorthodox offense. Their philosophy emphasized the “ground-and-pound” style.

It did not take long for the Eagle offense to rev up. Their second drive of the game consisted of five straight runs, wearing out the defense. Then just as the Monsoon seemed to have them figured out, a play-action fake resulted in a 40-yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead. Valley Vista's offense had a rough start, punting four straight times to begin the game. The Monsoon did not manage a first down until the six-minute mark in the first quarter.

The Eagles' next touchdown drive resembled the first: three straight runs to set up a 35-yard touchdown pass. O’Connor High School may have read the injury report, seeing that Valley Vista was without its two starting cornerbacks. Despite the score being 14-0, the morale of the Monsoon sideline did not change. The players roared with upbeat screams. The first quarter would conclude with a failed fourth down fake punt attempt by the Monsoon.

The second quarter began with a bit of life from the Valley Vista offense. The lone bright spot for the Monsoon, running back Meven Obregon, busted a 50-yard run to put the offense in the red zone at the three-yard line. With points seeming inevitable, the Monsoon offense completely collapsed. Valley Vista had two straight negative yardage plays and then a failed fourth-down attempt, coming away with nothing.

The Eagles would respond with a 90-yard scoring drive consisting of nothing but rushing plays to make the score 21-0, completely demoralizing the Monsoon sideline. The drive lasted more than eight minutes, leaving Valley Vista with a chance to complete a two-minute drill to put some points on the board before halftime. The drive quickly stalled, and the Monsoon were forced to punt. O’Connor would block the punt and return it for a touchdown as time expired, bringing the score to 28-0.

Coming out of halftime, the Eagles began on offense. A quick five-play ground-only drive led to a touchdown that brought the deficit to 35 for the Monsoon. The O’Connor running game wore down the Monsoon defense,  accumulating more than five yards per carry. Coach Wahlstrom echoed the same sentiments, “Our guys were completely worn out after the first half.”

The Valley Vista offense did not help its defense out, opening the second half with four straight three-and-outs. The effectiveness of the Eagle running game opened up the passing game: a 55-yard passing touchdown brought the score to 49-0. The Monsoon finally gained some traction on offense late in the fourth quarter, putting together a 75-yard touchdown drive capped off by a touchdown by Obregon.

Wahlstrom expects to have his full complement of weapons next week when his starters return against Anthem's Boulder Creek High. “If any training staff can help these guys get back to 100 percent, "said Wahlstrom, whose Monsoon fell to 3-5, "it's ours."