Riley Garcia is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Carl Hayden High School for AZPreps365.com

Carl Hayden suffered a tough road loss, getting shut out by Moon Valley 54-0 on Friday night.

Carl Hayden had costly turnovers throughout the game, struggling on offense and defense. The Falcons dropped to 0-5 on the season, 0-1 in region games.

Things didn’t look too bad in the beginning as a good kickoff by Carl Hayden followed by a false start had the Moon Valley Rockets starting on their own 8-yard line. The Rockets, however, marched down the field, scoring a touchdown after a five-minute drive.

It would only go downhill from there as the Falcons had a punt blocked and returned for a touchdown, along with a couple of turnovers. By the time the first quarter came to a close, the Rockets led 34-0.

“Right now, we have an identity issue,” Carl Hayden coach Jay Nunez said. “We’re really struggling to figure out who we are and what we’re good at.”

He later added: “Our attitude improved in practice and our effort improved in practice; it’s just right now, it’s hard to see the fruits of that labor.”

The Falcons did have a few shinning moments going down the field a few times, but couldn’t score on each of those tries.

Nunez also talked about where the team needed to improve. “Heart, desire, fight, pride, worth,” he said. “I’ve been with these kids every day since March and I know somewhere in that frustration there is a really good football team. Right now, it’s a really young football team, but there is a good football team.”

He added: “They just need to find their worth and fight for it.”

Some of the players shared similar frustration after the rough night about needing a better attitude and energy.

“I feel we need to improve on communication and same with the mentality,” said sophomore Anthony Arizmendi. “From what I see and from what I feel, everyone’s just not there.”

He later mentioned how he and rest of the team need to have a better attitude and come to practice more focused and energized.

“We just got to want it more than our opponent,” quarterback Jonathan Montes said. “We can’t tuck our tails, we got to play ball, play fearless, play with a great attitude and execute.”

He later talked about being disappointed with his on-field performance.

“I can do way better than that, what you saw was not at my best,” Montes said. “I tried to do a little too much and led to too many mistakes. … I need to work on my reads better, get the ball out faster and not just wanting to do everything myself. I got to get the ball out to my players.”

He wasn’t done after that going on to mention what he has to do for his team.

“I got to get on my teammates,” Montes said. “I got to get them on the same page as me, I got to get them to that level of wanting to be there.”

He added: “No matter what, if it’s home or away, we should be executing and leaving our hearts out on the field.”

Carl Hayden will have its third straight away game Friday night against 4-2 Youngker.

Moon Valley is 2-3, 1-0 in its region, and will be at home again Friday night, playing 2-3 St. Mary’s.