The eyes of Valley Christian High School junior linebacker Silas Venberg lit up when he saw Wickenburg High School, and its propensity for turnovers, on film. 

“We knew they fumble a lot,” he said. “So we were just trying to go for the ball this week, and force fumbles.”

When it was his turn to scoop up the football Thursday, Sept. 23, Venberg’s two focused headlights locked in on the goal line from 47 yards away, finishing off host Wickenburg 26-6.

“It was a good stunt,” Venberg described the defensive strategy. “They dropped the ball, and I just scooped it up and ran in.”

The recovery of Wrangler quarterback Calogero Dicamillo’s cough-up with 6:04 to play in the first half was the fourth for the Trojans in that time, with three of them directly leading to points in the road win.

“We were slanting a lot,” Venberg added. “They were slower off the ball, so if you [are] being really aggressive and get through your spot on time, you’re pretty much through. They can’t stop you.”

Wranglers senior running back Korbyn Dowdy found that out the hard way just over four minutes into the game, backed up on his own 1-yard-line. Venberg led the Trojans line in a repudiation of Dowdy’s efforts to escape his own end zone, and the subsequent safety gave Valley Christian had the unlikeliest of opening leads, 2-0.

Though the Trojans offense struggled its first couple of drives, junior linebacker Christian Bell gave it the second golden opportunity of the night in the red zone, recovering Dicamillo’s fumble on his own 18 less than two minutes later.  This time, Heeringa found sophomore Caleb Lewis in the corner of the end zone for the 9-0 lead.

Although Wickenburg junior defensive back Eleazar Dominguez and Dicamillo tried to right their turnover wrongs, with the senior quarterback’s fourth-down dive finally breaking the shutout with four minutes to play in the third quarter, Wickenburg couldn’t get out of its own way in time to overcome the relentlessness of Venberg, junior linebacker Dominic Ferrara and the rest of head coach Jake Petersen’s defense.

It also chalked up a second-half fumble recovery to its turnover total, which ended up matching the 5-0 Trojans’ win total to date.

For a day, at least, it is the best record in the 3A Conference, though not in Valley Christian’s own region, the Metro East. There, with a Friday, Sept. 24, win at Fountain Hills, American Leadership Academy - Gilbert North will own the edge on the Trojans in region wins as well as wins against 3A opponents and is likely to claim the top conference spot in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s initial power rankings Tuesday, Sept. 28.

But while the Trojans have not been able to do any more than beat their previous two opponents in front of them--regardless of whether they have been smaller schools, like 2A Gilbert Christian, or larger schools, like 4A Northwest Christian--they have beaten all of their opposing offensive lines into the backfield.

If that continues beyond their final Freedom game Friday, Oct. 1, at Safford, the Trojan horse of the 3A Conference may transform into a dark horse for its title.

“We’ve just got to stay focused in practice,” Venberg said. “We also have to run our plays better and execute more. Stop them when we need to stop them and make plays when we need to make plays.”

Certainly Valley Christian has explosive playmakers, like wide receiver Austyn Gerard, whose 25-yard reception of fellow junior Hunter Heeringa’s fade stretched the Trojan lead to 16-0 less than five minutes into the second quarter.

Gerard’s seven touchdowns rank him among the top 10 in the conference in the category, while Heeringa is knocking on the door of its top five in total offense after a night he eclipsed 1,000 yards in the category.

Add the accurate, long leg of junior Dominic Zvada, who leads 3A in kickoff yardage and is one of its top five punters as well as scoring kickers, and the Trojans are a threat to score, with or without the help of its defense.

It provided so much help at Wickenburg that senior Kaden Majercak, third in the conference in rushing with as many touchdowns as Gerard on the season, wasn’t even needed. Junior Ethan Tovar broke a 44-yard run  to set up Zvada’s 34-yard field goal that put the Wranglers away with less than three minutes to play.

“It was a battle, all the way through,” Venberg said. “A couple missed assignments, but our defense was doing a good job, just stopping ‘em when we could.”