Nathaniel Garcia is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Casteel High School for AZPreps365.com

Casteel High School, now 3-2, traveled to Mesa High School Friday night. The game, which was expected to be explosive, ended up with a gritty victory for the Colts 42-27.

In last week’s games, the Colts beat Mountain Ridge 45-6, while the Jackrabbits beat Dobson 41-7. So, both teams came into Friday's game with momentum. It was just up to who wanted this win more. 

The Colts started their first drive slowly with a fumble but picked off what they were doing last week to drive the ball down the field and end it with a 9 yard rushing touchdown from Isaiah Linyear to make it 7-0. But that lead was short lived when Mesa answered back with a kickoff return to tie it 7-7.

Isaiah Linyear was heavy in the run game scoring multiple touchdowns for the Colts not taking his foot off the gas. 

“Play-by-play, none of that stuff matters. We try not to look at the score, obviously the play calling depends on the score, but we just gotta focus on executing and doing our responsibilities,” said Linyear 

With Mesa Scoring another touchdown to make the score 14-7 it started to look like a slippery slope for the Colts. But that did not discourage the Colts to give up, they kept fighting and pushing the ball down the field. But the game was not in the Colts favor with a 3 point deficit at halftime 21-24. 

This game was full of big plays after halftime a 70 yard gain was put up against Mesa with # 9 Paul Palmers arm and #17 Nathan Mcconnell. This lead to a Paul Palmers using his legs to rush for a touchdown and regain the lead 28-24

The defense played a major part in the second half of the game only letting up 3 points in the entire second half.  The run game too was very effective against Mesa.

“I thought I made the plays when my team needed me most, I didn't do too much in the passing game, but I was able to use my legs efficiently and score a touchdown,” said Paul Palmer

The Casteel Colts made their adjustments to the second half and ended the game with a victory scoring 3 touchdowns in the second half despite how things started in the beginning. This was a play till the clock hits triple zeros. 

“Were happy about the win, you gotta enjoy the victories when you get them, but we still got so much work to do, we gotta play more together, be more methodical on how we approach the game itself as a team overall, were a better team than we are showing,” said head coach Newcombe 

There is a connection with this group of athletes, this football team. 

“I love these guys, we know we got a lot of stuff to work on, were gonna get back at it next week, we try not to focus on our records and dwell on any of that stuff, Im excited I trust these guys, I love these guys, they are my family,” said Linyear