Jace Grenke is a student journalist at Arizona State University assigned to cover Coronado High School for AZPreps365.com

After Arete Prep's loss to Heritage Academy Laveen on Oct. 6, the Chargers bounced back in their second straight road game against Coronado, 41-0, on Friday.

The Chargers (4-5) came off their bye week looking strong against the winless Dons (0-9).

Although the Dons failed to get on the scoreboard, they showed signs of progression on both offense and defense.

The first half was already decided as Arete Prep was up 34-0. But Coronado's defense showed somewhat of a positive sign that they could get stops in the second half, allowing one touchdown.

The Dons ran the ball effectively, collecting a few first downs on their first three drives, but couldn't capitalize when they got to the red zone. 

“We started to move the football there for a while, but when we got down to the goaline, they put all their starters back in,” said Coronado head coach Rick Benjamin.

“This is a young team and it's really a junior varsity team playing a varsity schedule. We have quite a few players at different positions that are just learning. We really wanted these guys to experience a score.”

Coronado athletic director Robert Villa added, “There are only five seniors on this team and only one of them has any playing experience, so we’re hoping to build the program from the youth.” 

Along with that, of the 36 players on the roster for Coronado, only 21 were available for the Arete Prep game.

According to Coronado tight end Nathan Higuera, this was because of “bad grades, injuries, and even no shows.” 

The Chargers, who have plenty of youth of their own, took advantage of the Coronado's slim roster. 

“Overall we executed what we wanted to do, we wanted to run the football and we had a bunch of different guys score running the football,” said Arete Prep head coach Mike Marino.

“I feel pretty good, we’ve taken some lumps this year and we’ve also had some really solid wins, but we’re a really young team with only four graduating seniors so we bring almost everybody back. As the season comes to a close, I feel really good at where we’re at.”

Coronado will have its season finale hosting 2A Verde region opponent Veritas Prep (6-3) next Friday (Oct. 27) at 7 p.m.