Luke Galindo is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Barry Goldwater High School for AZPreps.com.

The Barry Goldwater Bulldogs faced a tough opponent Friday night to start region play.

The Bulldogs lost 52-7 to visiting Apollo High School, the 5A Northwest Region co-leader.

Goldwater coach Frank Lautt knew what his team was in for.

“They’ve got a good running back (Adam Mohammed), who’s committed to U of A, and two good linemen,” he said. “They have a lot of athletes. They’re a good team.”

The Bulldogs and Hawks entered this game with 3-2 and 4-1 records, respectively.

As far as talent goes, it was clear that Goldwater was outmatched, but in Lautt’s eyes, some valuable lessons were learned.

“We need to improve our blocking and tackling,” he said. “Last week it was better and we’re looking for more improvement tonight.”

The Bulldogs came into this game with two key players sitting on the bench with injuries, Pierre Peters and Matthew Llamas.

Peters has the third most tackles on the team (33) and Llamas was second (8.3 per game).

With the Bulldogs missing two important defensive pieces, several players were playing out of position.

At the beginning of the game, the team's blocking ability was tested. After Goldwater went three-and-out on the first drive of the game, it punted from its own 15-yard line.

But Apollo blocked the punt and returned it for a touchdown.

Goldwater also faced some tackling issues early in the game. On their second offensive drive of the game, the Bulldogs punted again.

The returner was able to dodge his way to the 12-yard line, completing about a 50-yard return. Apollo took advantage of the opportunity, with Mohammed completing a 12-yard run for a touchdown, making it 14-0 early in the first quarter.

Although it was not a good outing for Barry Goldwater, that didn’t keep linebacker Jonathan Juarez from motivating his teammates.

“We make little mistakes, and we can fix them with the game film on the sidelines,” he said. “It’s easy to make mistakes, but once people make mistakes they put their heads down, and I don’t like to see that. I like lifting my teammates up and helping them get better.”

After every defensive outing, Juarez made it a point to pull multiple players to the side so they could look at the film and analyze what went well and what didn’t.

Despite the disappointing loss, the Bulldogs are optimistic about their next couple of games. Running back Dylan Hayhurst, who rushed for 160 yard, liked the second half improvements.

“In the locker room we discussed what we were doing right and what we were doing wrong,” he said. “I think in the second half we definitely did a lot better and already started improving on what we did wrong.”

Hayhurst scored his team’s only touchdown after a 24-yard third quarter run.