By Brittany Bowyer
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CAVE CREEK — It was a rough night for 5A Cactus Shadows Football on Friday as the Falcons fell to the the 4A Eastmark Firebirds 13-0 at home. The loss marks the third consecutive week the offense has struggled to produce results, as the Falcons now sit at 0-3 on the season.

“They play hard,” Coach Chris Dixon said about Eastmark. “Point blank.”

In the first quarter, Eastmark was able to get on the board with a 56-yard touchdown run from Zayden Virani. On the snap for the extra point attempt, the ball was fumbled and the kick was no good. With 7:26 left in the first quarter, the Firebirds were up 6-0.

Most of the remaining game was a back-and forth defensive battle, as neither team was able to reach even the red zone again until the second-to-last possession of the game.

With just 59.4 seconds left to play, Eastmark shocked everyone on a fourth and short by passing the ball to sophomore Ezra Love, who had a straight route into the end zone for a touchdown. The kick was good, making it 13-0 with less than a minute remaining.

Cactus Shadows did their best to move the ball in the short amount of time left to play but were unsuccessful as they ran out of time.

“I don’t think anybody played well today,” Dixon said. “I don’t think we can give credit to anybody. I don’t think we did anything we’re supposed to do. We’ve got to start doing things the right way. We’ve gotta find leadership, we’ve gotta find people who are gonna step up and step into the light.”

For Cactus Shadows, this is the second game this season where the Falcons have been shut out. In the game against ALA-Gilbert North, the team managed to put up 20, but it wasn’t nearly enough. The biggest question surrounding the program right now is what the team is going to do to get better. Cactus Shadows has got to find a way to produce on offense.

“Right now we’re an 0-3 team and we’ve gotta figure it out,” Dixon said. “It’s been who we’ve been for the last three games... We’ve just gotta get better. Point blank. So, we’re gonna take the responsibility as coaches and get it done.”

Brittany Bowyer is a Report for America corps member, covering sports for Independent Newsmedia in Arizona. Report for America places talented journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and regions.