Connor Moreno is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover  Gilbert Christian High School  for AZPreps365.com

Gilbert Christian continues to dominate its opponents, posting a 46-7 victory on the road against Fountain Hills on Thursday night and giving the Knights their fourth consecutive win. 

The Knights have outscored their opponents, 142-29, during that span.

Senior utility player Kaleb Powell was a force in nearly every facet of the game for Gilbert Christian. The all-in-one tight end, linebacker, kicker and punter had three receiving touchdowns, one rushing touchdown, a forced fumble that was recovered for a touchdown  and six kickoff touchbacks that led Fountain Hills to an average starting field position at the 19-yard line.

“(Powell’s) a stud every time he touches the field,” coach John Carlson.  “He did a lot of great stuff on both sides of the ball, and kicking the ball, and that’s just who he is and how he plays.”

Though the Knights’ first drive resulted in a punt, Powell put the defense in perfect position with a 40-yard punt that pushed the Falcons back to their 10-yard line. On third down, the Gilbert Christian defense forced a fumble that gave way to a 4-yard Powell rushing TD at the 6:05 mark, putting the Knights up 6-0.

Once again, the Gilbert Christian defense was a dominant force. The Falcons had minimal success trying to run the ball. Their 57 total rushing yards on 31 attempts equals t1.84 yards-per-carry.

Defensive coordinator Peter Heintz praised his defense’s performance, crediting his two edge rushers for Fountain Hills’ inability to get the running game going.

“It helps to have two guys on the edge that are awesome,” Heintz said, referring to sophomore Hyatt Lang and junior Josh Rich. “(They’re) knowing what their jobs are and doing them pretty well.”

After leaving the Falcons scoreless for the third straight drive, junior quarterback Tyler Burr put together an eight-play, 95-yard drive to start the second quarter that ended with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Powell. Burr finished the night completing 15 of his 22 passes for 241 yards and three touchdowns.

The highlight of Thursday night’s game came with 14 seconds left in the half when sophomore receiver Kamari Stanbury scored a 60-yard touchdown on a reverse sweep that saw him cut from the right side of the field all the way to the left side to put his team up 20-0 as time expired.

Four plays into the second half, the Knights struck again as senior defensive lineman Jesse Morales scooped up a fumble and ran 23 yards to the end zone.

“That (touchdown) felt amazing,” Morales said. “I want to thank Kaleb Powell for that great forced fumble that allowed me to make the play. I just got to give it all to my teammates.”

The Knights remained scoreless for the rest of the third quarter and the defense may have lost focus on the next drive. After forcing another punt, an untimely ‘roughing the kicker’ penalty gave Fountain Hills another shot that immediately led to a 50-yard touchdown for the Falcons’ only points of the night. 

“We had a few lapses in focus on (that drive),” Heintz said. 

The small mistakes were a point of contention for the coaching staff following the game. Despite shutting Fountain Hills out for the rest of the game and tacking on two more touchdowns in the final frame, Carlson believes more work needs to be done in preparation for their next game and puts it on himself to get his team there. 

“I’m really proud of how hard the kids played,” Carlson said. “But, this far into the season, I didn’t have them well enough prepared. We try to coach to our standards and our potential, not to the scoreboard – so, we’ve got to get back to work.”

Fountain Hills (2-4, 0-1) will play their second 3-A East section game against Blue Ridge on Friday at 7 p.m. in Fountain Hills.

Gilbert Christian School (4-2) will travel to Valley Christian School (5-0, 1-0) to start their 3-A Metro East slate on Friday at 7 p.m. in Chandler.