Chas Messman is a student journalist at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University assigned to cover Chaparral football.

The Chaparral Firebirds defeated the La Joya Lobos 70-35 under the lights at La Joya Community High School on Friday night. The Firebirds now move to 2-1, while the Lobos fall to 1-1 on the season.

The Firebirds were dominant from the start, scoring 28 in the first half, but they extened that lead in the second half by scoring 42. Head coach Brent Barnes was most impressed by the physicality of his team throughout the game. “We fit on our assignments a whole lot better, which was the thing where we were making mistakes the first couple weeks," he said. 

Chaparral was without star quarterback and future Ohio State Buckeye, Jack Miller. Miller is the seventh-ranked player in the state of Arizona by 247 Sports and the tenth quarterback in the nation for the class of 2020. Barnes described Miller's injury as “at least week to week, it’s not a season thing.” 

The Firebird offense did not skip a beat without their starting quarterback. In their highest scoring game so far this season, Chaparral scored each time it got the football. They punted the ball once, however, the kick was muffed, and the Firebirds recovered to send their offense right back on the field. Miller’s replacement, sophomore Brayten Silbor, threw for three touchdowns and rushed for another. “I thought he made some really good throws,” Barnes said. “He had some decisions he had to make, whether it was RPOs (run-pass options) or other things. He made the right decisions.”

This was Silbor’s first start of the season. His play improved, and his confidence grew as the game moved along. Silbor was especially good in the second half, where he had two touchdown passes and a rushing one. “I felt great, especially in the second half,” Silbor said. “My teammates had my back and I had theirs.”

No one had his back more than his running back and his offensive line. The Firebird rushing attack was almost unstoppable, as Jared Williams rushed for four touchdowns and just under 200 yards. “It’s awesome [to coach him], he is a great kid and he has a great personality,” Barnes said on Williams. “He shows up everyday and works his tail off. “ 

The Firebird offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage the entire game. The Chaparral offensive marched down the field over and over again. When evaluating his offensive line Barnes noted that they " need them to be physical, lean on people and that opens up all the other things we can do.” 

Chaparral was also solid defensively against the high-flying Lobo passing attack. “It was a challenge and I feel like we matched that, especially second half,” Barnes said. “There are some things we need to work on and get better, but I would say I was very pleased with the defensive performance.”

The Firebird defense helped out their offense by forcing four turnovers. Linebacker Ryan Alderman snagged an interception on the Lobos' first drive of the game to set the tone for the rest of the night. The Firebirds also recovered three fumbles during the game.

“Forcing turnovers are definitely something we focus on,” senior cornerback Kamdan Hightower said. “We work on it during practice and it is something we need to keep doing with Saguaro coming up.”

Following back to back wins, the Firebirds have a bye week coming up before playing Arizona-powerhouse Saguaro High School the following week.

“These two wins going into a bye week gives us huge momentum, and we are going to be ready for Saguaro,” Hightower said. “We are coming hard.”