Westview Shutout by Valley Vista
September 8, 2022 by Cooper Burns, Arizona State University
Cooper Burns is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Westview for AZPreps365.com
SURPRISE -- The Westview Knights traveled north to take on the Valley Vista Monsoon and both teams were looking to get their first wins on the early season.
Just like the weather, a steamy 97 degrees, Valley Vista came out hot and didn't cool down in a 49-0 win.
Valley Vista quarterback Adrian Crespin led the offense down the field on an impressive opening drive by the Monsoon which was capped off by a five-yard touchdown pass from Crespin to receiver Stacy Jacobs.
With the Monsoon ahead, 7-0, Westview sophomore quarterback Jayden Patterson took the field for the first time looking to respond. Starting on their own 18-yard line, the Knights went three-and-out in on their first possession of the game. Patterson rushed for a first down, but it was negated by an illegal blind side block in which the Knights would not recover from.
After a hot start from the Valley Vista offense and slow start from Westview, both defenses locked in and showed how good they can be.
Over the next three total drives, both defenses allowed -3 three total yards, showing how tough it would be to score this game. Late in the first half the Monsoon would tack on two late touchdowns and would take a 21-0 lead into the half.
Coming into the second half the Knights would have to stage a big comeback to get their first win of the season.
The defense came out strong forcing a Monsoon three-and-out.
While the defense was showing its teeth the offense would not get anything going.
The offense could not get anything going on any of its second half drive ending up with zero total points on the night.
Due to the lack of offense from the Knights the defense was on the field for most of the second half and gave up an additional 28 points.
Despite the performance on the field Westview, head coach Robert Irish thinks he could have done a better job to prepare his team during the week.
“I don’t think that teams are not giving me the effort or whatever else it is, I look at it as the fact that I didn’t get them prepared well enough to go” Irish said.
However, the offense and defense remain optimistic moving forward.
“I feel like we [the offense] have the potential we just have to execute” Patterson said.
Senior cornerback Keith Hayes feels despite the performance, there were some positives even being down big late in the game.
“Yeah, I saw some people who earned some spots today, we definitely could have been a lot better,” Hayes said.
Valley Vista improves to 1-1 and will travel to Phoenix to play North next Friday night.
As for Westview, they move to 0-2 and will be at home next Friday against North Canyon