2024 High School Football

Stifling defense, explosive offense leads Ironwood Ridge to win over Empire

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Ironwood Ridge head coach Dale Stott talks to his team after their 43-6 win over Empire (Lori Burkhart/AllSportsTucson.com)

One sign of a successful team? How they bounce back from a tough loss.

Ironwood Ridge (2-1) bounced back big time after last weeks loss to the Buena Colts (3-0) in Sierra Vista.

The Nighthawks dominated in all facets of the game in their 43-6 win over Empire (2-1) on Friday night.

The win snapped Empire’s seven-game winning streak dating back to Sept. 29, 2023, when the Ravens beat the Sahuarita Mustangs.

“It felt great, it really did. It’s always hard to lose especially on the road, you’ve got to think about it all the way home. This kind of helps expunge that.. put it in the background and let us move forward. I was very proud of our team effort,” Ironwood Ridge head coach Dale Stott said about the win over Empire.

Stott and his coaching staff made adjustments that helped get the team back in the win column.

“We made a lot of adjustments. We were determined to be more physical up front,” Stott said.

“Worked hard with the O-line. Our running back Isaac Hyde was injured last week. He came back strong today, had some big runs and ran hard for us and made a big difference.”

The offensive adjustments the coaching staff implemented were successful as the offensive line created big holes ending in long runs and two rushing touchdowns for Hyde.

Nighthawks’ starting quarterback Jaiden Martinez added two rushing touchdowns and back up quarterback Hunter Rehrmann added another.

“Coming out this week in practice, we worked really hard and it really showed this game with our O-line. They worked really hard in practice and they really got the job done,” Martinez said about the protection from his offensive line.

Martinez didn’t just use his legs in the win, he threw a perfect pass to wide receiver Matthew Kroner who ran in for a touchdown.

Adjustments made on defense were also successful.

The Nighthawk defense held Empire scoreless until running back Ngonkra Fuangunyi, the Week 2 AllSportsTucson.com Player of the Week, powered into the end zone with 1:12 left in the game.

Led by defensive end David Baba, the defense camped out in the backfield all night, putting pressure on Empire quarterback Brycen Duncan and shutting down Empire’s running game.

“The defense was tremendous, can’t say enough about them. David Baba was just a menace out there, so good defense, very physical,” Stott said.

Baba takes losses personally and puts in the hours to watch film and learn.

“For me personally, it’s a lot of film watching. It’s a lot of kind of like self analysis as well so once that game film gets posted I’m up to like 1, 2 a.m. right after the game. Looking what I did wrong, looking at what I did right, look at where they got me at,” Baba said about his postgame process.

When Stott took over as the head coach of Ironwood Ridge’s football program in 2023, the Nighthawks were coming off a 1-9 season.

Stott, faced with a team decimated by player graduation and transfers, was looking at a complete program rebuild.

Since that time, the Nighthawks have gone 10-3 and earned a spot in the 2023 5A state playoffs

The Nighthawks will look to continue their winning ways when they travel to Douglas (0-3) next week. Game starts at 7:00 p.m.

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