Conner Palluck is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Student assigned to cover La Joya Community High School for AZPreps365. 

The La Joya Lobos took on the Independence Patriots on Friday night in a 4A Southwest Region matchup and it was Homecoming night for the Lobos. Both teams entered undefeated in region play with the Lobos on a two-game win streak and the Patriots on a three-game win streak.

Independence took control of the region with a 20-7 win. 

Early on the story was the defense for both teams as the Patriots defense forced two turnovers on the first two drives for the Lobos, but the Lobos took the lead on the first play of the second quarter courtesy of Daves Pearson's rushing touchdown to put them on top 7-3. This came after the Lobos faked a punt and Jamie Ozuna completed a 40-yard pass to Jacob Gerrardo. 

Coach Adam Beene said the time was right and they executed it well.

"It's based on field location and down and distance," he said. "We had another one in the bag that if we could have got fourth-and-3 or less in the right part of the field we would've done it again, but you know we just didn't get that chance."

This would however be all the Lobos could push across on the night as the Patriots defense was suffocating. The Patriots would take a 10-7 lead into the half and would tack on 10 more in the second half to close the game out 20-7. 

The Patriots defense forced four turnovers on the night, three of them coming on fumbles, as well they sacked La Joya quarterbacks five times which did not make the Lobos offensive line coach Ivan Vazquez very happy. 

"We practiced against their blitzes, against all their looks up front, but we just didn't execute the right way," Vazquez said. "We had our good drives, but the drives that mattered, probably the most, we didn't execute correctly. We didn't execute on the right side of the field actually."

The La Joya offense looked out of sorts all night as the normally strong rushing attack only managed to rack up just over 50 yards on the ground as the Patriots' blitzes would stop most plays at or behind the line of scrimmage. 

On the other side, Independence's Chance Ogle rushed for over 120 yards on the night and running back Jimmie Canidate had a touchdown on the ground. Quarterback Armani Cruz did not throw for very many yards, but did complete a touchdown pass to Adrian Navarro to put the game out of reach in the fourth quarter. 

This victory improved Independence to 7-2 overall and 3-0 in region and dropped La Joya to 2-7 overall and 2-1 in region. Independence will play Gila Ridge (1-7) next Friday and La Joya will have Senior Night next week as it hosts Seton Catholic (2-6). 

"We gotta come out and play a lot better next we so we can send all of our seniors that we look up to on this team out with a win," Pearson, a fullback, said.