MESA—Despite improving to 3-0 with a lopsided 67-21 victory over Westwood High School, Perry Pumas head coach Preston Jones was left unsatisfied with his team’s play against an inferior opponent.

“I saw a lot of sloppiness, saw a lot of penalties, saw some lackadaisical effort,” Jones said postgame. “I saw some mental errors and I wasn’t real happy whatsoever at halftime with the offense.”

On the stat sheet, everything went as expected for a favored Perry side. Starting quarterback Brock Purdy accounted for six total touchdowns, two of which were caught by junior receiver D’Shayne James. Meanwhile, the Pumas defense buckled down to give up just two scores to the Westwood offense all night (one of Westwood’s touchdowns came off a kick return).

Yet, an abundance of penalties left a stain on the performance right from the opening drive.

Sophomore wide receiver Jorden Young thought he had scored a highlight reel catch-and-run touchdown during the team’s first possession, only to look back and see his 61-yard jaunt negated by a holding penalty.

Later in the opening quarter, a 35-yard touchdown pass to Connor Boyd was brought back by an illegal man downfield flag.

“We had a lot of mental mistakes with receivers and the (offensive) line,” Purdy said. “We had a lot of flags in that first half. But those are just things we will work on and we can only get better from here.”

Getting better was not something his coach thought the Pumas accomplished during Friday’s game.

“I don’t know if we benefit from this game, I don’t know if Westwood benefits from this game,” Jones said. “When you beat a team bad, if you play well that’s good. But if we don’t play well, we can’t allow that to happen.”

While frustrating for the coaching staff, the infractions did little to keep Perry’s dynamic offense from finding the end zone. After Young’s touchdown was wiped away at the beginning of the game, Purdy responded quickly with a bullet of a throw to James for a 46-yard score.

On the next drive, Young created another big play, jump-cutting his way through the Westwood defense for a 55-yard touchdown.

 “It was a great run, and great blocking by my teammates, great play,” Young said. “I’m always trying to do something special, try to put on a show for everybody.”

In the first half alone, six Pumas’ players—Purdy, James, Young, Boyd, Kenny Fultz, and Clayton Schmitz—had a rushing or receiving touchdown, helping their team build a 47-7 lead.

“We are extremely lucky (to have a lot of weapons),” Jones said. “Blessed to have some really good kids, and a lot of them talented. We rotated six running backs tonight; four of our running backs could play at most programs in the state.”

Meanwhile, one of Westwood’s lone offensive standouts was junior receiver Manny Collier, who had a 75-yard touchdown run and 95-yard kickoff return score on the night.

“He’s a special athlete,” Westwood head coach Kyle Ide said. “When we can get him free, all it takes is a crease for him and he can obviously break it, so we try to get him the ball as many ways as we can.”

Beyond Collier however, the Warriors ran into a buzz saw of a defense in Perry. Of Westwood’s seven first half drives, five ended with three-and-outs, and another resulted in a lost fumble. In the second half, Perry’s de facto second unit was just as dominant in giving up only one score while also intercepting a pass.

“We’ll have to see the film to see," Ide said. "But they just beat us up on the line of scrimmage. They (have) good players.”

Perry will enter their home opener against Sandra Day O’Connor next week with a perfect 3-0 record still intact, the second straight season they’ve reached that mark. Like last year, expectations are beginning to mount for another deep run into the state playoffs. Even a sloppy victory didn’t dampen the team’s growing confidence.

“It felt good, getting all the guys in to play like that,” Purdy said. “(Westwood) wasn’t as talented I guess, but they played hard so props to them.”

Added Young: “We’re pretty confident, but we are just trying to play these better teams because everybody is doubting us, but we’ll see how it goes.”