Devon Henderson is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Dobson High School for AZPreps365.

If a Dobson Mustangs football fan were to look up at the scoreboard following the first quarter of the school’s Friday night matchup against the Mesa Jackrabbits, they wouldn’t have liked what they saw. The score read 28-0 Mesa and spelled what would be a disappointing night for the Mustangs, who went on to fall to Mesa 59-20. 

The Jackrabbits scored on their first four possessions of the game in a relatively easy, repetitive fashion. Multiple times during the first drives, Mesa senior quarterback Uriel Gonzalez would find senior receiver McKy Peters on short bubble screens and he would weave his way around Dobson tacklers into the red zone. From there, senior captain running back Junior St. Cyr would do the dirty work to punch it in for points. 

Two consecutive drives set up by Peters ended with multiple red zone rushes resulting in scores for St. Cyr. Two Gonzalez touchdown tosses, another St. Cyr rushing touchdown, and a field goal in the first half left the Mustangs in a 38-6 hole at the half. Their lone score of the half came on a rushing touchdown from relief senior quarterback Brandon Chavarria Macpherson, who’s normally a receiver. The ensuing field goal was blocked. Starting sophomore quarterback Tomas Montemayor could not finish the game due to a sprained ankle, head coach Bill Godsill said.

“Brandon’s a wide receiver for us and just jumped in there as an emergency guy and did the best he could and kind of gave us a new spark, so it’s kind of nice to see,” Godsill said after the game. 

That spark Godsill spoke of didn’t come until the second half. Macpherson led a previously fairly dormant Mustang offense to two more scores during the second half. The longest of the two was a long touchdown run by junior Dwight Shoulders with just about two minutes left in the game. The slight improvement of fight and effort in the second half from Dobson was something Godsill said he preached to them at halftime. 

“I was like, ‘Are you guys gonna’ lay down or are you gonna fight back?’ and they stood up at the end of the second half and we had some pretty good drives,” Godsill said. “We’re just gonna try to build off those positives next week.”

While the offense improved slightly, the defense still didn’t have enough to stop the powerful Mesa ground game. St. Cyr would add another rushing touchdown on the first Mesa possession in the third quarter to open the second half. He finished with four touchdowns, with 163 yards on 20 carries. Junior running back Kahlil Burley came in during the second half, raking in 84 yards of his own and adding multiple rushing touchdowns to cap off a 59-20 win for the Jackrabbits. 

Dobson senior captain Allen Wallace had a short sentiment on how his team needs to improve moving forward.

“Pick up the energy, pick up the focus, and adjust, bring it all in as one,” Wallace said after the game. 

Mesa High School will look to continue its bruising run success against a talented Hamilton Chandler team next week.

Meanwhile, For Dobson (1-3), it’s back to the drawing board and an opportunity to regain some success against the winless Westwood Warriors (0-4) away next Friday.