Matt Araneta is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365. 

Mountain View (6-1) junior running back Reese Bodily broke the school's rushing record in the Toros' homecoming win, 63-30, over crosstown rival Mesa (3-4) on Oct. 18.

In the Toros' fourth straight win, Bodily had four touchdowns (three rushed, one caught) on his birthday.

"I feel pretty good its all due to my oline and my recievers, they all blocked so well, and im lucky to have them" when asked about his performance.

This was Mountain View's third 6A conference Fiesta regional game, whereas it was Mesa's second against the region's No. 1-ranked team. Mountain View came in with a 5-1 record, meanwhile Mesa looked to come over 500. as they stood 3-3.

Mountain View opened with a sharp offensive series, with junior wide receiver Talan Arnett connecting with junior quarterback Brady Goodman for the game’s first TD, setting the score at 7-0. A short punt by Mesa left Mountain View in prime field position, leading to a 66-yard touchdown run by junior WR Steve Metto, extending the lead to 14-0.

However, Mesa responded with a thrilling 90-yard kickoff return by senior WR Kelvin Holland, though a missed extra point left them trailing 14-6. Mountain View’s offense fired back with another rushing touchdown this time by Reese Bodily, bringing the score to 21-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Mesa tried to claw back into the game, adding a field goal to cut the deficit to 21-9. But the Toros found the end zone again through another Arnett TD that extended their lead to 28-9. The Jackrabbits finally responded at the end of the half with a rushing TD to cut it close, 28-16.

After halftime show that introduced the 2024 homecoming court, the Toros continued to dominate. Their star RB Bodily added another TD, which extended the lead to 35-16. Mesa’s offense faltered under pressure from Mountain View’s defense, with senior linebacker Beckham Barney and junior defensive end Caleb Larson breaking up key passes.

"We had some adveristy out on the field, we had to come over and top that, keep making plays and we make those plays to ride that wave thats what coach preaches" said Caleb Larsen on rallying defense.

"I feel good, defense brought the physicallity and energy definetley some technical things we can work on so that we can make a run," said Barney after the win.

After a quiet third quarter, Mountain View added another score with receiving TD by Bodily, making it his third TD of the game from Goodman to extend the score to 42-16. Not stopping there Goodman connected with Arnett for another TD to blow it open more to 49-16.

"Every week im just going to go to Talan, we been playing together forever so the connection is definetly there," said Goodman after connecting with Talon. "We have been working our butt off all offseason so the connection will always be there," said Arnett.

Mesa's offense finally started rolling after multiple first-down's on the drive, seniort QB Adrik Reed found senior WR Jordan Yamamoto for the score to get an offensive touchdown on the game moving to 49-23.

After another huge rush of 50 yards by Bodily, Goodman found the end zone on a QB rush to go up 56-23.

Goodman ended the game with five TDs on the game which boosts his season total with 25 passing TDs, 30 total on the year. Three of them going to Arnett which cumilates to his season total to 14 TDs.

The Jackrabbitts found the endzone again with Yamamoto's 2nd TD to tally on there final score of the game to make it 56-30.

The Toros relentless offense couldn’t be stopped. Another rushing touchdown from Bodily, which set the school record in rushing yards with a total of 318 on the day, resulted in the final score of 63-30. 

Coach Andy Litten has words for their teams performance, "Everybody can have their night, make plays when they need to, last few weeks we had to do it through the air today they played a lot of guys deep...we made sure we hit them where could and Reese did a great job running the ball."

Mountain View and Mesa are entering their next regional matchup games Mountain View's next game will be at Tolleson Highschool (3-3, 1-0) on Oct. 25th at 7 p.m.