Averi Roberts is a student journalist at the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University assigned to cover the Arcadia football team.

The Arcadia High School football team is like a jigsaw puzzle. The many pieces of the puzzle are the players, talented on both sides of the ball. All put together, they make one big picture. All season long, the team struggled to make every piece fit perfectly. Like many people building a puzzle, they practiced patience and vision. In their final game of the season, they made all the pieces fit and came out with the victory they had been waiting for.

The Arcadia football team found its first conference win against Marcos de Niza, 26-20, at Arcadia Friday night. This was the final game of Arcadia’s season, as playoffs are no longer in the picture.

Arcadia tight end and defensive end, Trey Brown celebrated after he found his way into the endzone to score the first touchdown of the game, which put Arcadia on the scoreboard early in the second quarter.

“It was great. I feel like it got me going, and I had a good game from there,” Brown said. “It was fun out here, the energy was live.”

Arcadia fought hard. Marcos de Niza pushed back.

Shortly after Arcadia scored their first touchdown, Marcos de Niza managed to score against Arcadia’s tight-knit defense.

But Arcadia’s defense would not let down much more after that.

At halftime Arcadia was up 18-7.

“It was huge, held them to seven points in the first quarter,” Arcadia head coach Kerry Taylor said. “They made some big stops, stopping their runs the second half, which ultimately helped us win a game right there.”

The Arcadia offense worked together to make plays happen. With some mistakes, the defense was able to come in and hold Marcos de Niza off.

“Our defense did amazing. That Marcos de Niza offense is good. They ran the ball really well, so our defense did unbelievable,” Crew Edwards said.

Edwards is a wide receiver and cornerback for Arcadia and totaled 54 receiving yards against Marcos de Niza.

Arcadia’s quarterback, Kadin Beler, accumulated 300 passing yards on the night, but he also depended on defense to help keep the Marcos de Niza offense from matching Arcadia's output.

“Offense got stopped a couple of times, defense stepped up. Kept us in the game, if the defense didn’t step up and they [Marcos de Niza] drove it down the field, the outcome would be different,” Beler said. “They kept us in the scoring position, and we got the W.”

In the conference play, Arcadia struggled to put the pieces together. After winning all non-conference games, they hit a familiar record from previous seasons in conference play, losing every game. This win against Marcos de Niza marked the first conference win for Arcadia since the 2018 season.

“We executed the small details, against pressure we got the ball out quick, got it into our playmakers hands and space, they made plays. The o-line handled the pressure really well,” Taylor said.

As Friday's game honored the seniors, the team wanted to leave on a high note. Brown, a junior, knew the goal for this game and made sure to make it happen.

“I feel like, last year we lost the last game and we didn’t get to send the seniors off well," Brown said. "This year, I feel great. This is what I wanted to do.”