By Jordan Lank
PHOENIX– The Arizona Lutheran Academy Coyotes were driving.

Marching down the field after a long punt return against the Paradise Honors Panthers, the Coyotes worked the ball inside the 5-yard-line and were looking to punch the ball into the end zone for their second touchdown of the game.

On the other side of the ball, Panthers dual threat junior captain Clayton Duzy yelled to his teammates, “Come on! They aren’t this good!”

That brand of frustration was the story of the game for the Panthers (0-2) on Friday night, as they dropped their week two tilt with the Coyotes (2-0), 44-0.

“We would do something positive and follow it up with something negative,” said Paradise Honors head coach Duane Brown.

“[We took] one step forward and two steps back all game long. We would have them in third down, fourth down and give up a first down,” he said. “It’s just execution.”

The execution didn’t come on either side of the field for the Panthers, who were shut out for the second time in as many weeks to start the season.

“We didn’t finish any drives, and this team has to learn to finish those,” Brown said.

The Panthers’ offense, piloted by the impassioned Duzy, struggled all night long but found some bright spots in the second half when the gears seemed to start moving.

Duzy, a former wide receiver and cornerback, is in his first season as the quarterback for Paradise Honors, and said he is growing more comfortable with the position as the team grows together.

“I’m feeling good,” he said. “The O-line is picking up things better now. They were having some trouble with it but I feel like now that Coach Duane has been working with them… I feel a lot more confident to step back and throw a couple balls.”

But, Duzy also said the Panthers have some work to do.

“At the end of the day, we’re not out there five days a week working our butts off in the sun to come out here and lose 44-0, we’re coming out here to put up a ‘W,’” the Panthers quarterback said.

Defensively, Paradise Honors was torched by Arizona Lutheran junior running back Brandon Garcia, who ran for 134 yards and contributed 34 receiving yards. He also had four touchdowns.

Senior running back Jack Gray was impressive as well with 97 rushing yards and 22 receiving yards with one touchdown, following a six-carry, 186-yard performance last week against the Scottsdale Preparatory Academy Spartans.

“It takes every player, every down winning their gap and it’s a one-on-one battle,” Brown said. “It just takes a committed effort for four plays consistently.”

“When they pull, stay in your gap,” said Panthers junior defensive lineman Dylan Behymer.

“It’s how bad you want it,” Duzy said. “If you don’t want it bad enough, get off the field.”

Paradise Honors will have a week to fix its “little mistakes,” as Duzy called them, before a week three battle with the Odyssey Institute in an away game played at the Panthers home venue.

“We’re going to work on the things that we made mistakes [on], we made some small tweaks tonight, some of them worked really well, some of them not as well as we would have hoped they would have,” said Coach Brown. “It’s just little stuff at this point.”