Caleb Camero is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arizona College Prep for AZPreps365. 

The Arizona College Prep defense dominated Moon Valley on Friday night in a 28-0 win in its homecoming game.

The Moon Valley Rockets and their rushing attack were held scoreless. ACP executed its defensive game plan perfectly. The Knights stacked the box and forced the Rockets to try and beat them through the air.

The strategy for ACP was simple -- stop the run. Once the Knights took that away, the Rockets were left with no answer. Moon Valley punted five times in the first half alone. The other two first-half drives ended due to an interception and running out of time before halftime.

“We really needed to stop the run, we knew their quarterback struggled a bit in the passing game, he is more of an athlete,” head coach/defensive coordinator Myron Blueford said. “ ... If we take away the best thing they do, we have a good chance of winning,”.

The ACP defense did not stop the pressure in the second half. Moon Valley punted on four of its five drives with the last drive being cut at the end of regulation. In total, seven of the 12 drives for the Rockets were three-and-outs.

The Rockets produced only three first downs. Moon Valley had two big passes going for 29 yards (first quarter) and 35 yards (third quarter) but other than that, the ACP defense had Moon Valley on lockdown.

Although the entire defense executed, the defensive line delivered constant pressure and penetration. Defensive end Cayden Gibson led the charge with seven tackles, four for loss. Gibson also had a pass deflection.

“Really, we were reading their plays,” Gibson said. “If they were doing an outside run, the tackle traps really hard, or tries to get to my outside shoulder really hard. If I went underneath, I was able to make a tackle,”.

Gibson’s fellow pass rusher, Elijah Cazares, also played a huge role upfront having a tackle for loss and another tackle. The pressure kept coming as ACP’s linebackers put a stop to the Rockets running.

“I feel we were stronger than they were up front, and more athletic,” defensive line coach Jabbar Harris said. “We were able to get ourselves into the backfield, control our man, and protect our gaps. We kept our gap integrity, and then finished the plays with our tackling, which is something we did all day today,”.

As Moon Valley had to look to throw the ball to find success, the ACP secondary stepped up on long balls. TD Vanderah had an interception ending a promising Rockets drive in the second quarter. All other pass opportunities were either dropped or well defended by the ACP defense.

  The ACP defensive play was a showing of dominance coming off a big win last week against Mesa, and it showed up again on homecoming night. ACP’s defense will enjoy a bye week before taking on Seton Catholic.