With tonight's game marking the halfway point of Pinnacle High School's football season, the Pioneers are beginning to change their narrative. After two consecutive losses, Pinnacle defeated Brophy (0-4), 28-7, Friday night.

After three long weeks of two tough losses and a game cancellation, Pinnacle came out on the field with something to prove. They haven’t played a home game since their season opener and were looking to give their fans something to cheer about.

The Pioneers got off to a running start after recovering a squib kick to begin the game. Pinnacle wide receiver Dorian Singer took advantage of this opportunity and caught a tightly contested touchdown just a minute into the game. Singer had over 120 yards and two touchdowns in the first half alone before being sidelined in the second half due to an undisclosed injury.

“No Dorian [Singer], it takes a weapon off the field,” said Pinnacle’s head coach, Dana Zupke. “It tightened up our box, Brophy was a little less concerned about who was out wide and that helped take away some big plays for us.”

Luckily for the Pioneers, they had another star wideout in Duce Robinson. Robinson had two touchdowns of his own including a Randy Moss-like catch in the back corner of the endzone, ending the first quarter.

The Pioneers came away with touchdowns on three consecutive drives to shut out the Broncos 21-0 at halftime.

Without Singer, things slowed down in the second half for Pinnacle’s offense. The Pioneers only managed to find the endzone one more time for the remainder of the game. Nevertheless, Coach Zupke liked what he saw from his young team.

“When you drop a couple and it puts everybody in kind of a bad mood,” said Zupke. “It’s nice to just get a win and I was really pleased about how well we overcame the adversity of it all.”

Pinnacle’s defense was almost perfect, excluding a few questionable roughing the passer calls. They only allowed a season-low one score, which came off of an offensive turnover with the ball already deep in Pinnacle territory.

“Decision-making was better on the defensive side of the ball,” said Zupke. “This was a big theme in practice all week and they came out and competed in every play. Our players left it all out on the field tonight.”

Pinnacle advances to 2-2 on the season but looks to have a tough matchup next week against the 2019 6A conference champions, Liberty High School.