The sun was setting in Queen Creek and Friday night football had just kicked off.

Just over a minute into the game, junior quarterback Devin Larsen completed a touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Garrett Duke to put Queen Creek up 7-0 on Deer Valley.

Not even a minute later, the defense picked off Deer Valley in the next series. Queen Creek capitalized to take an early 14-0 lead.

And that seemed to set the tone for the rest of the night.

The Queen Creek Bulldogs beat the Deer Valley Skyhawks 38-0 on Friday night in a Class 5A non-region football game. The Bulldogs’ defense shutout the Skyhawks and forced two turnovers.

One was an interception by junior Jett Koester that was ran back 33-yards for a touchdown. The other was a 76 yard fumble return by junior Armando Orona.

Senior Dante Coleman described the turnovers as crazy.

“We were all on fire,” Coleman said. “Armando with the fumble on the fourth-and-9 and running it back almost all the way, it was crazy. We were all just having a blast out there.”

Offensively, the Bulldogs (5-0) were successful running and passing the ball.

“When teams prepare to play us, they don’t have to worry about just the running game or just the passing game,” junior Dylan Borja said. “(Our opponents) have to worry about both so then we’re really versatile in that aspect.”

Deer Valley (1-3) struggled on both sides of the ball. Coach Eric Bolus described the offense as one dimensional and the defense as gassed.

“Until we can get two dimensions to our offense somehow, the defense is going to continue to be on the field too long,” Bolus said.

Deer Valley looks to bounce back next week against Agua Fria High School (1-3).

“We’ve got regional play next week, and we’re back to 0-0 (within the region),” Bolus said. “(We’ll) start this thing all over again.”

Queen Creek looks to keep the momentum going next week against Ironwood Ridge (4-0).

“(We’re going to) just keep working harder, keep striving because that’s what got us to this point so far,” Borja said.

Ironwood Ridge is also undefeated and will be coming off a bye week.

Queen Creek Coach Travis Schureman expects the matchup next week to be a challenge. “We’re going to enjoy tonight and get ready to go back to work tomorrow morning,” he said.