Andrew Hayslett is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism assigned to cover Xavier College Prep for AZPreps365.com 

It was a beautiful sunset game as Xavier College Prep moved to 4-4 with its win over Desert Vista.

It was a team defense win for the Gators as they caused four turnovers, two on-downs and two interceptions. The score was 21-14 in favor of Xavier.

Each team moves 4-4 after the game with just over two weeks left in the season.

The key drive of the game was just after the half when the score was 8-7 in favor of the Thunder and Xavier had the ball. The driver included some risky playcalling from Coach Michael Patterson that included going for it on 4th in Thunder territory. They were able to convert it and eventually score a touchdown on a pass from sophomore quarterback Joie Ramos to senior wide receiver Grace LeDoux which was their second time connecting for six points.

“Just keep going because there are games that we've given up in the second half, and we just keep building on our success on defense. So that's what I told them, just keep going,” Patterson said about his message at the half.

“We were all able to read the defense and point out their weaknesses so that we could make those risky calls,” Ramos said.

It was a low-scoring game as defense was paramount. Each team had eight drives where they failed to score.

“Flag pulling. We held them to midfield for almost a full quarter, so we had a pretty good scheme and when we can't pull flags and our offense can't generate a lot more pressure on their defense, it's hard to win a game and get a flag back,” Desert Vista head coach Derrick Herring said.

Each team had a clean game with zero accepted penalties and one declined penalty on Xavier. 

Joie Ramos led the Gators' offense, throwing for 168 unofficial yards and three touchdown passes. Her top connections were Grace LeDoux, who caught two touchdowns, and Gigi Bulkley, who grabbed 105 unofficial yards and a touchdown.

“It all came down to work on and off the field. We've been working to get our record back up. So we've been coming up with new plays to get as many touchdowns as possible,” Ramos said.

Defensively, junior Isa Ady led the team with four sacks and five tackles. Sophomore Myriah James and junior Cooper Hidalgo had an interception each. 

“It felt great to be, one of the defining moments because we were all getting our heads down and they scored it was tied,” James said.

It took a lot of work for the Gators to hold the Storm to 14 points. 

“Just a lot of repetition, a lot of just game planning for them. We knew what they were doing, so we kind of knew where the ball was going each play,” Patterson said.

“I feel we all just worked as a group and all of our energy was matching, we were all in sync, we never let the scores get to us and we just kept playing our hardest and that led to a victory,” James said. 

The offense for the Storm was able to put together good drives but turned the ball over in Xavier territory as junior quarterback Jackie Jimenez had unofficially 225 all-purpose yards.

“Well, tonight we just didn't take what we had. We had looks that we practiced for and that we wanted to get based on their defense, and we got them, and we just didn't make the plays,” Herring said.

Moving forward Desert Vista has back-to-back home games on the 29th and 30th versus Tucson and Perry respectively. They go on the road to Mountain Pointe and Corona Del Sol on the second and fifth of November before hosting Marana to end their season on the sixth.

“Well, we have some things to work on,” Herring said.

The Gators look to ride the momentum as they go to Corona Del Sol on the 29th followed by a home Halloween game versus Millenium. They then travel to Marana on the fifth of November before wrapping up their season against Sunnyside on the seventh.

“It all came down to work on and off the field. We've been working to get our record back up. So we've been coming up with new plays to get as many touchdowns as possible,” Ramos said.

“The second half of the season, we've been 3-0, so our second half has improved, we're all a team now, we're all together, and the unity has been major for us,” Petterson said.