Ahead of Desert Vista’s contest against Basha, Thunder head coach Ty Wisdom had two main goals for his team if they wanted to emerge victorious.

“Create some turnovers and make some big plays,” he said.

Unfortunately for coach Wisdom’s squad, neither of those goals were met in their 49-3 loss to Basha.

The Bears did not turn the ball over a single time and Desert Vista’s longest play was a 24-yard pass from junior quarterback Jackson Akins to senior wide receiver Nicholas Lyons on their first drive.

In fact, the Thunder’s only points of the night came off of a 36-yard field goal from senior kicker Noah Perez on that same drive, making the score 7-3. But from then on, it was all Basha.

The Bears scored 42 unanswered points behind sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr. Williams Jr. finished the game with 132 passing yards, 85 rushing yards and four touchdowns.

Overall, it was an all-around effort for Basha’s offense. Junior running back Deshaun Buchannan carried the ball 10 times for 96 yards and one touchdown, sophomore Miles Lockhart carried the ball three times for 17 yards and a touchdown and had two receptions for 29 yards and sophomore receiver Bryson Dedmon had 4 receptions for 72 yards and two touchdowns.

On multiple broken plays, Williams Jr. scrambled around before finding an open receiver downfield.

“Our receivers are great at scramble drill,” Williams Jr. said. “Whenever I roll out, they know the exact spots to go.”

On the other side of the ball, Basha’s defense was impenetrable. The Bears defense held Akins to just 35 total passing yards and one interception on nine passing attempts.

The only Thunder player to make any noise on offense was sophomore running back Christian Clark who got the start over senior Devon Grubbs who was out with an undisclosed injury. Clark finished the game with 70 rushing yards on 15 carries.

“Christian did some good things. He’s a very talented kid,” Wisdom said. “Nobody fills Devon Grubbs’ shoes. He’s our leader and right now we’re looking around and seeing who wants to step up.”

Desert Vista’s schedule does not get any easier next week as they are set to play the Hamilton Huskies. Wisdom said that preparation for next week’s game will come down to how they practice.

“We’ve gotta focus on ourselves, doing our jobs with maximum effort and being more physical,” Wisdom said. “We’re gonna have a lot of full-padded practices next week with that being said. At the end of the day, we’ve gotta get better ourselves in all areas.

As for the Basha Bears, they will host Mountain Pointe at home in their second region game of the season. Basha head coach Chris McDonald said after the game that he would like to see his team limit their penalties prior to next week’s game.

“Like any coach, I expect clean football,” McDonald said. There were a couple times where we got goal line and we had a penalty and now it’s first-and-goal from the 15. That’s difficult no matter who you play.”

With the open division looming over Basha, Williams Jr. perfectly summed up how his team prepares every week without looking too far down the line.

“We just can’t look ahead, Williams Jr. said. “Take it one week at a time.”