Elijah Murray is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Red Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com

Red Mountain’s flag football team continued its hot start against Basha on Tuesday, winning 30-7 in the team's first home game of the season. With the win, the Mountain Lions improved their record to 3-0, while the Bears dropped to 0-3. 

“It feels great,” Red Mountain coach Julian Madison said about the team’s strong start. “I know that the season's really long and 3-0 right now doesn't matter too much, but it feels good to be executing on offense and defense, a little bit on special teams, too. Obviously, we have some room to improve, but it feels good so far.”

Mountain Lions senior quarterback Korey Roberts was involved in every scoring play for her team as she tallied two rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns, one of each in both halves.

“We played Basha last year, they're a really good team,” Roberts said. “We were just preparing. Everything that we did in practice before, we sat there and we prepared on. We did our defense, we went over offensive plays, just working hard and staying disciplined.”

The Mountain Lions opened the scoring with 5:13 left in the first quarter as Roberts scored on a 12-yard run. After Red Mountain tacked on a field goal, the Bears answered back with 50 seconds to go in the second quarter as junior Luci Burt caught a pass in the corner of the end zone, closing the gap to 10-7. 

“I think that was a little bit of a brain fart in the back end,” Madison said about giving up their first score of the season. “That defense in particular was one of the newer ones that we’ve installed.”

However, with 40 seconds left in the second quarter, Roberts connected with senior wide receiver Ava Klene, who then ran for an 80-yard touchdown reception, extending the Lions' lead to 16-7 heading into the half.

“Just make sure I catch the ball and run as fast as I can,” Klene said, recounting her mindset during the play.

Madison called the play due to Klene’s speed.  

“We had 50 seconds left, and I'm like, you know what, I'm throwing the ball to AK right now. I don't care what happens,” Madison said. “I just know her versus anybody, she's crazy fast, so I was super proud. As an offensive coordinator, it makes me feel like, dang, man, I need to get her the rock.”

Red Mountain extended its lead to 23-7 in the third quarter as Roberts found junior wide receiver Gracie-Lin Gonzales in the end zone for a touchdown with 40 seconds left. Roberts tallied the team’s final score of the game with 4:58 left in the fourth quarter as she rushed into the end zone, pushing the lead to 30-7.

As for what is the driving force behind this strong start, communication is a recurring theme.

“We've definitely improved on communicating a little bit,” Klene said. “It's my first time playing offense, so it's nice knowing how they play together like that.” 

“We have a lot of incoming freshmen, so it's a new family,” Roberts said. “I really wanted our team chemistry to be right. We're really tight on team chemistry, and we've been working on that a lot, so just being connected with the girls really helps on the field.”

“We've thrown a lot more at them this year than we ever have at this point, and they’ve caught on very well,” Madison said. “Part of it is having a quarterback who started for three years, but defensively, they're executing multiple defenses, and I'm surprised at how well they're catching on.