It was about as close to a perfect game Corey Noble has coached in his short tenure at Walden Grove. The Red Wolves beat Glendale 49-6 Friday night to move to 4-1 on the year and Noble (19-7) wanted his players to know he appreciated the effort he saw that night and in the week leading up to the game at home.

“We didn’t win this game tonight,” Noble told his players. ‘We won this game on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. This was about as close to a complete game I have seen here.”

Glendale (3-2) came in with a three-game win streak that included offensive performances that produced scores like 48-21, 58-36 and 68-33. In short, the Cardinals were scoring big and it was a concern for the Red Wolves early on.

(Donnyvan Murdock/Andy MKorales/AZPreps365.com)

Rocco Bruney threw for 150 yards on the night to lead Glendale and 67 of those yards came on a broken play to Kevin Daniels in the opening drive. Bruney’s pass was tipped at the line but Murdock was able to snag the ball out of the air and he was off to the races, only to be caught from behind at the 11.

The Walden Grove defense held firm and Daniels was tackled for a 2-yard loss and then a 4-yard loss to set up a long third down from the 17. Thomas Welky put an end to the threat on the next play with a sack that resulted in a fumble and that fumble was followed by three straight turnovers on downs and then back-to-back interceptions with Jordan Lopez returning one for 75 yards. The Cardinals were beaten on both sides of the ball.

With the defense riding high, Alex Lopez made sure the offense was doing its part. Lopez finished with 322 yards passing with two touchdown passes to his brother, Jordan Lopez, and another to Hector Najar. Alex Lopez also rushed for 42 yards.

Jordan Lopez was equally impressive on both sides of the ball with 147 yards receiving with two TDs and two interceptions with another TD. He also came through with tackle after tackle but we won’t know those totals just yet.

“We did a great job preparing this week and that’s what we will have to do every week,” Jordan Lopez said. “We’re hungry and we just need to do what we do. I’m more offensive minded and I hope to play receiver in college but I have the athletic ability to play defense also.”

Sam Martinez rushed for 68 yards with a TD and Jeremy Lai rushed for two more TDs to help pace Walden Grove.

Daniels worked hard for his 89 yards rushing and he finally broke through with a TD with 6:42 left in the third. Unofficially, Daniels finished with 156 yards of offense.

“We have a lot of young guys who have never played before but we are battling,” Daniels said. “We are getting ready for region play and we need to focus on Cortez now.”

Cortez is 0-5 on the year and the Cardinals are looking to bounce back big next Friday to open up play in the 4A Black Canyon Region. Walden Grove will pay a visit to Rio Rico (2-3) on the same night and the Red Wolves will be battling for control of the 4A Gila Region with Pueblo (4-1) and Amphitheater (3-2). The Red Wolves won the region title last year for the first championship for the football program since it began in 2012.

(Alex Lopez/Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)