Dylan Bruton is an ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain Pointe High School for AZPreps365.com. 

PHOENIX -- Some wins are prettier than others, but the Mountain Pointe Pride scraped by with a 9-0 shutout versus the rugged Willow Canyon Wildcats on Thursday. 

Overcoming injuries from sophomore wide receiver/linebacker Kinzey Reed and junior Amillia Mambru , illness from senior starting quarterback Ariana Acosta ,  and five turnovers, the victory improved the Pride’s record to 3-0 while Willow Canyon slipped to 1-2. 

“Today we had a lot of different types of adversity happening, and sometimes you have to grind them out,” Mountain Pointe coach Sergio Rodriguez said, “It doesn’t matter what you're feeling like, what your day was like, the other team doesn't care, so I was really proud of my team for fighting through that adversity and getting a dub anyway we needed.” 

Fresh off back-to-back, high-scoring victories, 33-0 against Vista Grande and 28-14 against Horizon, the energy was high. The Pride entered the contest averaging 23.3 points per game, thanks to back-to-back stellar three-touchdown performances through the air by Alexa Acosta. 

Yet, offensively, they struggled to finish drives without committing turnovers, especially in the first half. 

Acosta threw four interceptions to the same defender, Willow Canyon’s sophomore safety JohnTavia Course, with three in the first half to Course, including one with 1:19 left in the second quarter on one of their better offensive drives. 

Yet despite her early struggles, Acosta rebounded with an 18-yard passing touchdown with 0:17 seconds left to freshman Neveah Luevano, giving Mountain Pointe a 7-0 lead at halftime. 

“They have my back and I have theirs, " Acosta said. “Even if I wasn’t feeling good, they kept me going, and I knew I could trust them and they gave me their trust, and that’s definitely what helped us get that touchdown before the second half.”

Despite having to sit out a few plays and being under the weather, Acosta finished the game better than she started, only misfiring on eight throws all night, going 22-for-30 for 235 yards through the air. 

However, with the offense struggling to finish drives without committing turnovers, it was the defense that did the heavy lifting in Thursday’s game. 

Willow Canyon senior quarterback Natalie Garcia was unable to throw any touchdowns despite completing over 69% of her passes, going 18-for-26 for 68 yards, but found most of her success on the ground, rushing for 77 yards. 

No play saved the day more than at 10:24 in the fourth quarter when Mountain Pointe sophomore rusher Malia Cooks, a first-year football player, sacked and recorded a safety on Garcia. 

“My coaches were telling me to turn it up and play at my full potential,” Cooks said. "They know my potential and I plan to hit the gas pedal and keep going.” 

Through it all, their game plan from start to finish was to be aggressive and they intend to keep that mentality as they venture to play rival Corona del Sol next week.

The Aztecs were undefeated up until Thursday night when they lost 28-0 to Gilbert.

After beginning the season averaging a blistering 53.5 points per game after their first two games, the Aztecs will be licking their wounds at a chance of redemption.

Mountain Pointe (3-0) will play at Corona Del Sol  (2-1) next Tuesday at 6 p.m.