Leila Ruterman is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cove American Leadership Academy-Queen Creek

Mountain Pointe had a number of its 27 eligible transfers on the field, but the reinforcements weren’t there in a 28-0 win for American Leadership Academy-Queen Creek on Friday.

ALA-Queen Creek’s defense forced two picks and a fumble, and its electric quarterback wide receiver duo of Enoch Watson and Jayden Williams scored two touchdowns. 

“I feel like we’re playing great as a unit on both sides of the ball. We play great team football. It’s one guy making a play on defense. The next play another guy makes it. Offensively Boe Sparks makes a great catch and Jayden Williams follows it up with another great catch,” said ALA-Queen Creek head coach Ty Detmer. 

Williams was on fire all night with 173 receiving yards from Watson. 

“I love Enoch and when we go out, he's trusting me out there and when he knows that he can throw it up and I’ll be there. It’s just great, great chemistry,” Williams said. 

Despite their 28-0 win, ALA-Queen Creek continued their pattern of starting off slow. It was similar to last week’s game against Pinnacle. They were only able to score once in the first half against Mountain Pointe, but they followed it up with three more touchdowns in the second half. 

“In the first half, it felt like it was just energy. There were plays that needed to be made that weren’t made by everyone on the team, including myself, and I feel like when the second half came around, we started executing,” said Watson, the BYU commit. 

Mountain Pointe, which was able to hold ALA-Queen Creek to minimal scoring in the first half, began to shoot itself in the foot as the game went on. It had numerous penalties ranging from offsides, false starts, ineligible players in the backfield to unsportsmanlike conduct.

The game took a somber turn toward the end of the second half when ALA-Queen Creek safety Diesel Mack went down with an apparent concussion, according to Detmer. The ambulance arrived, stalling the game for almost half an hour as Mack was carted off the field. However, this seemed to spark something in the ALA-Queen Creek defense as Nate Laduke followed the injury up with a pick to end the second half.  

“Obviously, Diesel was in their minds as the game went on, but they did a great job of refocusing trusting that we’re going to be out there playing and play hard still,” Detmer said.