Rams put Coolidge behind them, focus on Empire

Coming off a throttling at the hands of Coolidge last Friday, the Maricopa High football team looks to rebound this Friday night when it hosts Empire High from Tucson at 7 p.m.

Maricopa ran into a buzz saw in the form of Brad Jackson in its last contest. Jackson accounted for four TD’s in the Bears’ 61-12 win over the Rams. The loss dropped Maricopa to 2-2 on the season.

Empire enters this game with a record of 1-3 for head coach Jorge Mendivil.

The Ravens opened the season with a 20-0 win over Hayden, but have since fallen to Benson (34-26), Bisbee (18-14) and Santa Cruz (48-20). Empire junior Albert Casella rushed for 100 yards and two TD’s in the loss to Santa Cruz.

While the Ravens ran the ball against Santa Cruz, they also gave up chunks, large chunks of yardage on the ground.

Empire allowed 409 yards rushing on the night to one back alone. Santa Cruz’s Patrick Cann tallied the 409 yards and six touchdowns on the night. With that performance, he took over the state lead for rushing yards this season. Maricopa senior Matt Fierros is currently ranked third.

“Empire is a solid team that has played well all season,” Maricopa High head coach Tyler Brandt remarked. “They have great athletes and a good scheme on both sides of the ball. They have some real game-breaking talent that we have to try and contain.”

According to Brandt, the Rams have learned in a number of areas from their performance at Coolidge.

“We broke down the film (Coolidge game) at each position and created some great teachable moments for all of our athletes,” Brandt continued. “Our focus has been on improving technique and reducing the number of mistakes we made offensively and defensively. The practices this week have been all about teaching the little fundamentals that we have not been doing. We have won games on talent; when we faced teams that equal our talent we have to rely on our confidence that we will execute the fundamentals correctly.”

Photo by Mandy Hank