Kaiden Fesler is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Williams Field athletics for AZPreps365.com.

It was the defense that led Williams Field to a 21-7 road victory at Red Mountain on Friday night, clinching the Black Hawks at least a share of a region championship.

The 6A Fiesta Region — which includes Williams Field, Red Mountain, Queen Creek, Desert Ridge and Higley — is one of the toughest regions in the entire state of Arizona. Most games are decided by two scores or less, and three teams are ranked in the top 10 in the state.

In Williams Field’s second year in 6A, the Black Hawks are now 3-1 in region play, with their only loss being to Queen Creek by one point. Following back-to-back region wins, Williams Field now has a four-game winning streak.

“That's the biggest difference of us moving up to 6A, we have good players but every week you're gonna be in a dog fight," Williams Field head coach Steve Campbell said. "Being a small school in 6A, it's been a battle but it's something we enjoy. We get to be the underdog in every single game.”

Defense was the story all night as there were a total of 5 turnovers in the game and scoring was hard to come by. In the end, the WIlliams Field defense came out on top with 2 interceptions, a fumble recovery, and a total of 3 sacks on the night.

“It was probably one of our best defensive team wins all season,” said junior linebacker Faimafili Snuka after the game. “We really all came to play and we were all locked in, and it all started at the beginning of the week with our preparation, so I really think we were laser-focused and mentally locked-in.”

Linebacker Faimafili Snuka leads Williams Field in tackles this season. (Kaiden Fesler/AZPreps365)

The game remained scoreless after the first quarter but on the first play in the second quarter, junior quarterback CJ Tiller connected with star wide-receiver Kyler Kasper for a 47 yard gain. This led to the first touchdown of the game, a 3-yard run by senior running back Aziya Jamison.

The Williams Field offense got the ball back after a 3 and out by Red Mountain and the Black Hawks began to take control. Junior running back Joshua Dye broke loose for a 40-yard touchdown to extend the Black Hawk’s lead to 14.

The Red Mountain defense was focused on eliminating the pass game for Williams Field, which opened up the run game.

“I think Red Mountain’s strategy was to keep everything in front of them,” Tiller said. “They always gave us big holes in the running game. That's why I took off a couple times — you'll never see that a lot. But they gave us opportunities so we took the shots and the running backs and lineman did a good job and executed the plays."

Williams Field showed they found those holes in the run game as the Black Hawks had three different running backs score Friday night.

Red Mountain struggled on offense all night to put together drives and their only score of the game was a 36-yard passing touchdown to junior wide receiver Ja’Kobi Lane.

“I feel like this game showed us what our true strengths and weaknesses are, and going forward we need to emphasize our execution every play and getting the job done,” Lane said after the loss.”Penalties also killed us, we most definitely shot ourselves in the foot and put ourselves in a bad spot.”

Penalties were all over the field Friday night as it was a chippy game all night with multiple unsportsmanlike and personal foul penalties called, and both teams ended the night with over 100 penalty yards.

Red Mountain wide receiver Ja'Kobi Lane hold offers from Arizona State, Arizona, Northern Arizona, Colorado, and Nevada. (Kaiden Fesler/AZPreps365)

Red Mountain moves to 8-2 on the season and will have another region game next week against Higley. Williams Field will look to increase their playoff seeding next week as they will face the current #9 ranked team in the state, Brophy Prep.