Nathaniel Tropea is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cactus High School for AZPreps365.com

Football teams rely heavily on its offense to carry the game for them. After all, the until is the group to score points, giving them the lead, but when it comes to the opponent's possession of the ball the offense has no say in what happens. 

All the trust now diverts to the defense, to hold the opponent back from scoring points. Sometimes the defense can intercept the ball giving the offense another chance to score too, making the defense just as important as the offense.

The defensive line is what the defense prides itself on as they are the frontmen, facing the opponent's offensive line. What they do matters as coach Matt Ledesma comments on forming techniques to combat their opponents.

"I think just in the run game we're really strong in, you know, that's what we pride ourselves on, so all the techniques that we teach obviously when it comes all together for all of our guys up front, if everyone does their job we're able to stop the run," he said.

The young defensive coach knows the gameplay has to be almost perfect or you might as well give the lead over.

“I think that's a big thing in football," Ledesma said. "If you don't, if you can't stop the run, then they can do whatever they want. So that's what we pride ourselves on here. If we do our job we do well and if not, then we play teams it's not very successful."

It's a mentality that has to be understood throughout the unit.

“We have a firm conviction that we can be the best no matter what we're playing defense, offense or special teams to give it 110% no matter who we're play playing on Friday night. To just have that mentality, don't ever quit." says coach Nick Gomez on the overall of the team. 

The Valley coaches’ idea is to never give up, even if things aren’t going your way. The game isn’t over until the final buzzer buzzes, we’ve seen game changes many times in professional games, too. 

The defensive players have to have tough skin and be able to take a hit from a running back or block a wide receiver. They have to form a tight difficult defense to confuse their opponent's offense. Make them question where to put the ball in play. 

Every player has their own reasons for playing defense suits them, for the majority it's all about being physical. As linebacker, Kadin Huisinga explains what he likes to defend their goalline.

 "I just love being physical," he said. "I love just coming down and hitting a running back or coming down and hitting a receiver, running a slant or a drag."

Just like his linebacker, Gabriel Sotelo, who plays corner, enjoys the physical play that comes with being on the defense.

"I like playing it the most because I'm on the defensive side and I get to hit, I usually don't get a hit a lot, but I like hitting and making plays," he said. 

Meanwhile, some on the defense enjoy the outcomes of making big defense plays.

 “Defense is more exciting. Being able to go out there and fill the gap and just do responsibility and get sacks and tackles. Just more of a rush, you know?", says defensive tackles Aaron Lopez. 

These players put in as much work as the offense to get their game right during practice and off the field. Sometimes it requires putting in a lot.

"Always hitting the weight room is the most important. Keeping your strength up," Lopez said. "Just maintaining right now and eating, you know, you don't wanna lose weight going against those big guys, and just giving the effort a hundred percent. 'cause you know, something bad could happen. It could be your fault 'cause you didn't giving effort in."

The coaches can’t always predict what’ll happen in the next game, but they try to train and practice for everything and anything.

"It's a week-to-week basis, obviously. I mean, every team we play they like to run different types of formations and whatever they feel like they're running their offense," Ledesma said. "I think we do a good job of game planning when we meet as a staff, and from a strategy standpoint, it's just like I said, week to week and, you know, hopefully, we can guess. Hopefully, we do better than the other team."

Even after a week of practice, on and off the field, the game doesn’t go the way you wanted it. Negative outcomes can lead to negative gameplay, which no one wants. So it’s up to the players and coaches to make sure those negative thoughts don’t stick around. 

When the team is falling short in the game on points, the coaches have to be the ones to rally the team back and not give up so early.

Sometimes the players need to realign themselves in between plays. Linebacker Kadin has his own strategy of moving on past a bad play.

 "I think having a forgetful memory, being able to forget because if you stay on that play, you're just not gonna perform as well as you could," Kadin said. "It seems odd, and some would prefer to not forget, but in the next play you can’t sit on those mistakes and errors otherwise you will make more." 

Learning from your mistakes is a key element in anything you do, especially sports. As Aaron Lopez explained, you gotta figure it out and try to switch up your mistakes, because it cost you the game. 

The defense may just be looked at as the team's wall, and while that might be true it requires more than that to make good plays. You can’t just simply form a wall, it takes strategy and preparation to build it with your teammates. 

The ultimate goal of the defense is to prevent the opponent from advancing,

 "Someone who just has a strong punch and ready to get down in those trenches whenever you need to," Lopez said.