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

MESA -- Everything was clicking for the Red Mountain Mountain Lions on Friday night as they pounced on the Desert Ridge Jaguars, 69-16, to open up 6A East Valley Region play. 

Senior quarterback Dominic Carmigiano threw for three TDs and 156 yards in his season debut, completing 9 of 10 passes. Jayveon Williams caught three balls for 57 yards in the first half, including a 32-yard TD with 4:58 left, putting the score at 41-10.

Sophomore Darius-Grayson Courts ran for 82 yards and three TDs on only five carries, while senior Kai Jackson added 170 yards and two TDs on the ground, on just three carries. 

“He’s [Courts] really coming around,” Mountain Lions coach Kyle Enders said. “Like we said after that first game, he's going to get better each week, and it's obviously showing. The confidence seems like it's growing like crazy.

Most of the scoring came early for Red Mountain, who led 48-10 at halftime.

Carmigiano came in for just one play in the second half, hitting junior Airreon Windom with a 52-yard TD bomb with 5:50 remaining in the third, immediately after a fumble recovered by Red Mountain that was forced by junior Rosten Wood. 

“I had to get past the DB and make a play on the ball as best as I could,” Windom said. “And I think I did that to the best of my ability.” 

“To be honest, I thought I was close to overthrowing him,” Carmigiano said. “I see him start sprinting even faster; I was like, thank God.”

Turnovers were abundant during the first three quarters. 

Red Mountain forced three first-half interceptions, including a pick-six by sophomore Gard Liles to put the Mountain Lions up, 13-0, with 9:52 left in the first quarter. 

Desert Ridge coughed up the ball twice in the third quarter. 

The Mountain Lions scored on the next play, both times -- a 52-yarder to Airreon Windom from Carmigiano, and then a 22-yarder to Jayden Windom from backup quarterback Caleb Joe, to put Red Mountain up 62-10 with two minutes remaining in the third. 

“The kids play hard, so it fixes a lot of things by doing that,” Enders said. “What you guys see is some of the stacks, some guys flying around, some interceptions, they play hard and they prepare really, really well.” 

The Jaguars’ lone highlight came early in the game from sophomore Brett Frum, who picked off Carmigiano with 1:18 in the first quarter and brought it in for a pick-six to make the score, 20-7. 

"I knew that's just a mental mistake," Carmigiano said, "I knew I could bounce back from that easy, it's just moving on to the next play."

“We had opportunities for some kids to quit,” Jaguars coach Jeremy Beamon said. “They didn't quit, they came out there and played every down. So, you know, happy about that.” 

Desert Ridge senior quarterback Blake Julien finished up the scoring with 16 seconds left in the game on an 11-yard TD run.

Red Mountain (5-1) plays at Mountain View (4-2) in the Battle of Brown Road next Friday at 7 p.m.

Desert Ridge (0-7) hosts Corona del Sol (2-4) next Friday at 7 p.m.