Coach Chad Diegle called off training Friday, a day after Arizona College Prep suffered its first loss of the season.

He wanted his boys to marinate over their first loss to fully digest their disappointment and hopefully light a fire in their bellies. Boy did it ever.

Goals by Timothy Burlend, Josia Sinohui and Colton Fong in the very first 13 minutes of the game left Westwood’s fans stunned. The ACP Knights came to play—against a 6A title contender, no less. 

Westwood eventually responded, but the deficits were too much to overcome, leaving the Warriors feeling the Monday blues after a 5-4 home loss. The defenses were overshadowed by some very gifted front lines. 

ACP went up by three twice but still had to hold off formidable Westwood each time.

“My guys left pretty darn hungry from that defeat we just took,” Diegle said. "It was our first loss of the year, and we knew darn well who Westwood was. Everybody knows who Westwood is. They earned that reputation, but we caught them sleeping a little bit early and that led to our favor for sure. After that it’s just mostly about who wants it. I’m not saying (Westwood) didn’t, but I can tell you these guys were not ready for another loss.”

Westwood can partly blame Mountain Pointe, which defeated ACP 1-0 on Thursday, for getting blitzed early in Monday’s game. 

Not having difference maker Leo Ceren, who is nursing an injury, on the pitch also hampered Westwood. But one player does not make a team. 

Four different Knights scored for ACP (10-1), including senior Ewan McMaster, who also had three assists.  

“I think we proved today that 5A teams aren’t teams to mess with,” McMaster said. "I think, for ACP, we are starting to make a name for ourselves out here with the big dogs. So I was proud of the boys for that.”

Westwood (15-2) trailed 3-0 and 5-2 but came very close to tying the match each time they were down. 

A free kick by Quinton Rawls from 33-yards that skipped in left the Warriors trailing 5-4 with 2:11 remaining. But ACP held on to give Diegle his first big signature win in his first season as coach.

"Every game is a learning opportunity for the guys,” Westwood coach Lorenzo Davalos said. “We made a lot of mistakes. No competitive big team can give up five goals and win. I think the boys just came in a little bit mentally checked out of it. We went down 3-0 in the first 20 minutes, came back from it and went down again by three goals. But the boys showed some fight.”

Davalos, a Westwood alum, and assistant Rick Rawls have helped turn things around at their program.

The Warriors reached the final of the biggest regular season tournament, Holiday Extravaganza, in December. They now move on to region play. 

Their first East Valley match is against rival Mesa Mountain View on Wednesday, when ACP meets Horizon in the East Sky Region.