Conner Palluck is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover La Joya Community High School for AZPreps365. 

The La Joya Lobos hosted the Coolidge Bears on Friday night in a cross-conference matchup between the two teams with Coolidge coming out on top 48-14.

The Lobos got out to a hot start in the first quarter taking a 14-7 lead on a kickoff return touchdown by Jacob Gerrardo and a rushing touchdown by Josaphat Mukendi.

"I seen great blocks on the side of the field, you know I just gotta execute and get to where I need to be and take it up the sideline,:  Gerrardo said. "After that it was all green grass."

The rest of the game however would be dominated by Coolidge as the Bears would go on to score two rushing touchdowns in the second quarter to take a 21-14 lead going into the break. 

There was, however, a very special situation during the game, as the halftime break was taken when there were still 34 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

This was due to the fact that the Bears' Eleazar Acosta suffered a neck injury and first responders had to be called in order to place him on a stretcher so they safely could move him and take him to the hospital.

Both teams wish Acosta a speedy recovery and hope that he can get back to full health. 

La Joya coach Adam Beene felt it was the right thing to do.

 "Yeah that was unique, however, I think it was fitting for the situation you know, only 34 seconds left," he said. "Otherwise we would of had a long break and then another long break. So I understand the thought for it."

Following the break La Joya would be stopped on fourth down inside the 5-yard line, which would prove a very critical momentum shift. Coolidge would go on to score 41 unanswered points after the first quarter to take the game 48-14 on the road. 

The Bears' quarterback Gavin Gunter had a big day, throwing for 163 yards and a touchdown in the air, while tacking on 37 yards and a touchdown on the ground. 

The Lobo defense had a very hard time tackling ball carriers as it missed a bunch of tackles especially in the red zone, which resulted in the Bears having four rushing touchdowns on the night. 

Assistant coach Josh Mitchell said the reasons for the struggles could be placed in several categories. 

"It was a combination of you know execution and penalties," he said. "The second drive we got the penalty to start with and we were first-and-25 and it's hard to come back from that. And then I believe on the third drive we had another penalty. So we gotta cut those things out, those penalties, we're not an explosive enough offense to recover from first-and-25. So we need to keep it first-and-10."

Bene was completely frustrated with the Lobos' level of play.

"I told the team, 'Most embarrassing loss of my career' and I stand by that," he said. "I think it's just we're probably putting a little too much pressure on the win in some ways and so it kind of snowballs. However. I'd like to think we know better than some of those personal fouls and some of those things that happened. I felt like we've always been a pretty classy team, we've gotten compliments before, but tonight it didn't look like it." 

La Joya (0-6) gets ready to take on Sierra Linda (3-3) next Friday and Coolidge (3-4) prepares to travel to take on San Tan Foothills (1-5) in Queen Creek.