Josh Freeman is an Arizona State University and Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com

The Mountain View Toros football team faced the powerhouse Basha Bears on Friday night, and the Bears used a total team effort to roll to a 45-7 road victory. 

Jesse Parker Field at Mountain View High School was loud and full of fans as the home team ran onto the field just after 7 p.m. However, unfortunately for the Toros fans, they didn’t get many more opportunities to cheer once the game started. 

The Basha offense raced down the field on its first possession with little resistance from the Toros defense. The drive was capped off by a 7-yard touchdown strike from star quarterback Demond Williams to Travis Pennington. 

That drive encapsulated how the rest of the game played out, as the Bears rarely got beat on any play all night. 

Mountain View head coach Joe Germaine said his team was outcoached and outplayed in every manner, which led to his squad failing to accomplish the game plan. 

“One of our objectives coming in was we do not wanna give up big plays and we did that in every phase tonight,” Germaine said. 

Both Germaine, as well as his starting quarterback, and son, Jack Germaine, agreed that the offense was too erratic, and did not do enough to keep up with the big plays their team was giving up to the Bears.

“We were maybe a few blocks away from a touchdown and a long play,” Jack Germaine said.  “We are right there, we just gotta clean some things up and get back to the drawing board.”

Germaine echoed his son’s message, and said the offense needs to better develop as the season progresses. 

“Offensively we just gotta sustain drives better,” Joe Germaine said. “We are way too inconsistent on offense.”

The one piece of good news for Mountain View was how well junior wide receiver Karendus Poe played. He was the one bright spot on offense, reeling in six catches for 73 yards, 27 of which came from a gorgeous catch that may have been the best play of the night for the Toros. 

Poe was his quarterback’s favorite target all game long. After Friay’s loss, he said he is going to keep playing hard in hopes of experiencing more success later this season. 

“Stay locked in, we didn’t have that good of a season last season, so we need everything that we can get. That’s all there is to it,” Poe said. 

As far as how the Toros go about staying locked in and committed to having an improved season, Jack Germaine says his team needs to have a short-term memory. 

“Come Monday, this is in the past,” Jack Germaine said. “We’ll get back to work and we’ll get ready to play our next game and we’ll just get after it, attacking the opponent week by week.”