MESA — Salpointe Catholic was stunned on Friday night in the 36-0 setback to Red Mountain in a loss many didn’t see coming. The Lancers were punched in the mouth early and struggled to recover, as it was a rough game on both sides of the ball.
“That’s a 6A football team right there,” Salpointe coach Pat Ryden said.
Initially, things seemed positive for the Lancers after they won the coin toss and elected to defer. The excitement wouldn’t last long, though, as they would struggle from early on.
On Salpointe’s first possession, a blocked punt with 7:19 remaining in the first quarter gave Red Mountain the ball at midfield. Capitalizing on their field position, the Mountain Lions were able to move the chains and eventually score on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Caleb Joe to King Robinson. The PAT was good, giving Red Mountain a 7-0 lead with 4:53 remaining in the quarter.
Salpointe’s following possession was a quick three-and-out, punting the ball back with 3:59 still remaining in the quarter.
Red Mountain took over at the 29-yard-line and got to work. After moving the ball all the way down the field, the Mountain Lions were able to punch the ball in from the 5 on a run by Kai Jackson. The kick was good, extending the lead to 14-0 with 9:56 remaining in the second quarter.
Chaos continued on Salpointe’s following possession, as Tyreke Cornett was able to read the pass, come down with the ball, and return it 25 yards for a pick-6. The PAT was good, making it 21-0 with 9:41 remaining in the half.
After trading possessions, the Lancers got the ball at the 27 with 3:54 remaining left before halftime. Matthew Avelar was sacked for a loss of 15 before a fumble on the snap was recovered in the end zone for a safety. With 2:50 remaining in the half, the Lancers trailed the Mountain Lions 23-0.
It’s the second week in a row the Lancers went into the half scoreless.
“That’s a really good football team,” Ryden said. “We did some good things in the first half, but we didn’t execute like we need to.”
Salpointe got the ball coming out of the half, but unfortunately it was another quick three-and-out, resulting in a punt.
Red Mountain was able to open up the second half of play with a field goal to close out the drive, as Chase Pitzer made it from 21 yards to extend the lead to 26-0 with 6:56 remaining in the third quarter.
The Lancers finally started to find some offensive rhythm, but it was disrupted when a pass was picked off by Cornett once again with 4:04 remaining in the third.
On Red Mountain’s first pass of the drive, Alon Deon made an interception to give Salpointe the ball at the 50.
“[Deon] is a really good player for us. He works really hard and is trying to be the best he can be, and he does a really good job,” Ryden said.
Salpointe took over, but unfortunately was unable to do anything once again, turning the ball over on downs.
Salpointe’s defense was able to come out and force a punt on Red Mountain’s following possession, but their time off the field was short, as the Lancers fumbled the snap which was recovered by Red Mountain at the Salpointe 12.
Red Mountain wasn’t able to punch it in, settling for another field goal to make it 29-0 with 9:03 remaining.
At this point, Salpointe seemed as if it was just playing to survive. Another fumble on the following drive resulted in the loss of eight yards, ultimately forcing the Lancers to punt again with 7:15 remaining.
Red Mountain only took four plays to reach the end zone, capping the drive with a tush-push to get Joe across the goal line. The PAT was good, making it 36-0 with 5:28 remaining.
With a running clock, the Lancers got the ball back but were unable to progress down the field. The Lancers threw a couple of Hail Mary’s at the end in an attempt to get on the board, but were unable to complete the passes.
As time expired, the Lancers fell to the Mountain Lions for their first shut out loss since facing Liberty in October 2023.
“Defensively, they gave us a few different looks and brought in more pressure than we thought they would bring, but these are things teams are going to do all season long,” Ryden said. “We’ve got to be able to pick up the pressure.”
For the Lancers, they’ve got quite a bit of work to do before facing the rest of their daunting schedule. They’ll go back to the drawing board in hopes of making some improvements before facing ALA-Queen Creek on the road next week.
“ALA-Queen Creek, you know, I don’t know what they did tonight, they’re going to be 1-3 or 0-4,” Ryden said. “If they’re gonna be 0-4, they’re going to be the best 0-4 team in the state. They’re very, very talented and you know, we’re going to have to regroup and go out and play a little harder.
ALA-Queen Creek is 0-4 with a 31-28 loss at Red Mountain on Sept. 5.
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