Justin Carter is a sports journalism student at Arizona State University assigned to cover Arcadia High School.

It was pure domination on the offensive and defensive side of the ball by Arcadia in their 62-0 shutout of Desert Sunrise on Friday.

Arcadia now has a 6-0 record, matching its total win count from last season's 6-5 finish. The Golden Hawks fall to 0-5. 

The Titans are approaching each opponent at with a 0-0 record mentality, but are vying for a 4A playoffs high seed in November.

“It’s so much fun compared to every other season, we’re 6-0,” said Forst. “Our mindset is we have a chance to go 10-0 and get home field advantage in the playoffs so that’s what we are trying to do.”

As the Titans cruised to victory, they weren’t shy to have a little fun on their big Homecoming night.

With 34 seconds left in the first quarter, the Titans were up 28-0 when running back Brady Forst (three touchdowns) threw a TD pass to quarterback Braylen Rooney. 

“It’s kind of a trick play… we were like let’s just throw it why not,” said Rooney. “They had a hold of my right arm so I had to make a play but I caught it one handed with my left.” 

Arcadia's two-way senior John Coulter pulled in two turnovers, a forced fumble and a pick six during the first quarter. 

“The fumble kind of just happened, I hit him and I just got it, it fell into my hands,” said Coulter. “The pick six I missed earlier in the game and I wanted it back so I took it.”

Arcadia wanted to make sure they were prepared for anything from a new from Desert Sunrise. Senior lineman James McCormack explained the challenge in facing a new program.

“They’re really unfamiliar, we don’t have any experience from last year and only four or five games of film this year, so they’re a relatively new team and we can’t underestimate them,” said McCormack.

Arcadia's going to need more of this against far more competitive teams if they are to compete in this year’s playoffs. Last year, 4A title runner-up Snowflake shut out Arcadia in the first round. 

Arcadia head coach Ray Brown seems to be instilling the right confidence in the team that they can accomplish whatever they set their minds to. 

“He's definitely good with confidence. He says play for yourself, play for your teammates and it's really uplifting for us,” said Rooney. 

Arcadia will have its second straight home game against Mesquite (3-3) next Friday at 7 p.m.