Josh Freeman is an Arizona State University and Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com.

The Mountain View Toros used big plays on both sides of the football to shut out rival and region foe the Westwood Warriors 49-0 on Friday night.

Westwood’s Brimhall Field was the site for this matchup. 

The Toros entered this contest focused on winning a rivalry game with rich history and tradition, something head coach, Joe Germaine, can easily relate to. 

“When I was a player at Mountain View, that was always one of the biggest games of the year, and so this game was important to us, and we wanted to come out and play well,” Germaine said. 

Germaine clearly got that message across to his players, as the Toros had by far their best performance of the season, finally starting to take shape and mold into the product he has tried to get his team to look like. 

That product starts with the defense and running game setting the tone, and Germaine’s players have bought into his strategy. 

“We start with our defense and our run game because we wanna be a tough team - we wanna be a physical team and out-physical them on every play,” wide receiver Gunner Gornik said. 

Mountain View looked every part of being a tough, physical football team, as the defense forced two turnovers and stopped Westwood’s offense on fourth down on four occasions, each time giving the ball back to the offense. 

The offense took full advantage, scoring on every single drive in the first half, and utilizing the rushing attack to open the passing game. 

Toros running back Isaac Jean-Pierre had a monster game totaling 109 rushing yards while averaging 7.8 per carry, to go along with two touchdowns. 

Teammate and senior quarterback Jack Germaine fed off of Jean-Pierre’s dominant performance and produced a highly efficient game of his own, completing 11 for 15 with three touchdowns and no interceptions. 

“This game was just a mindset game, just kinda take over from the start, don’t slow down, all-gas-no-brakes type of thing,” Jack Germaine said. 

The Toros also adjusted their mindset to start region play, after suffering two blowout losses against the cream of the crop in Arizona high school football in non-region action. 

The Toros had the goal of going undefeated, but another one of their big goals is centered around ruling the region. 

“That was one of our huge goals was to win the region, and last year we did not win the region. I think we took last in our region, so we just gotta keep the fire and hunger of wanting to win the region, and keep this going,” linebacker Beckham Barney said. 

When asked how the Toros keep up the momentum after starting region play 2-0, their leader and senior quarterback says it gets down to focusing on getting better every day. 

“We just keep getting after it daily in the weight room, even in the classroom, at practice every day, we’re just competing and getting each other better, and that’s the biggest part,” Jack Germaine said. “We got a really close group of guys - a bunch of selfless guys that want to get each other better. So I think that’s a big part of our success.”