YUMA, AZ – There was a sense entering Friday night’s opener against Dysart that Gila Ridge knew what they were in for.
They had already seen plenty of film on the backfield duo of Pacey Prettyman and Chris Medcalf after the Demons won in convincing fashion a week earlier. And Hawks head coach Tyler Kosel was adamant that the game would be won between the tackles.
Well, it was.
The Hawks, plagued by turnovers and penalties throughout the night, lost, 36-6, as Prettyman and Medcalf piled up more than 300 yards of offense for visiting Dysart.
“We had a lot of mistakes; a lot of stuff we can control,” Kosel said. “Game one, we had a lot of jitters, a lot of stuff flying around. We came out and made a few mistakes early. They capitalized on them and we kind of dug ourselves a little bit of a hole.”
From the opening snap, Gila Ridge (0-1) seemed doomed. After forcing Dysart (2-0) to punt, running back Ricky Ramirez coughed up the ball on the Hawks’ first offensive play of the season. Less than three minutes later, Dysart’s Hakon Breivik converted a 33-yard field goal.
Following a missed field goal by Ramirez, Prettyman raced in for his first of a career-best four touchdowns, a 19-yard catch and run on a pass from sophomore quarterback Kobe Ganados on 3rd and 14.
And such was the story for Gila Ridge. They had flickers of success defensively, holding Prettyman or Medcalf to two yards or fewer on 12 of the duo’s 29 carries, and putting Dysart in unenviable third-and-long situations. But they spent far too much time on the field in the first half because of turnovers and an ability to move the ball offensively, and by the time Dysart had the ball pinned at their own 11 late in the second quarter, Gila Ridge’s defense was pretty well spent.
Medcalf ripped off a 24-yard run followed by a 65-yard breakaway by Prettyman to make it 16-0. A minute later, with quarterback Dareyon Taylor pressing to make something happen, Dysart’s Kruise Brown snared his first of two interceptions, and Prettyman scored, again, from 16 yards out.
Yet as much as Prettyman, who finished with 17 carries for 131 yards and three catches for 36 yards, controlled the game, it was Ganados’ poise and balance that carried the day for the Demons. Operating mostly out of the pistol formation, he completed 12 of his 16 passes for 149 yards and the lone touchdown toss to Prettyman.
“He really has stepped it up as a sophomore,” Prettyman said. “I can never imagine myself as a sophomore being a varsity quarterback like that.”
Gila Ridge finally got on the board with 8:26 to go in the game when Taylor connected with Ty Dehart for a 34-yard scoring strike. The left-handed Taylor lofted a ball over the top of the defense into the waiting arms of Dehart along the left sideline. The Hawks would miss the ensuing two-point conversion.
“Towards the end of the second half when they got up on us a little bit we were just looking for something positive,” Kosel said. “We had to get something going.”
Taylor, making his first start at quarterback, went 6-for-16 with 59 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. He also ran for a team-high 41 yards. Chance Morland rushed for 15 yards and Ramirez gained 32 yards on 10 carries.
For Dysart, the victory marked the second week in a row they topped 35 points, and carried a four-touchdown lead into the fourth quarter.
“Nobody expects anything from us,” Demons head coach Manuel Alcantar said. “Dysart hasn’t done much the last few years. Last year we made the playoffs and everybody called it a fluke, but I told the boys you’re out to prove everybody wrong this year.”
