At the tail end of his sophomore year, Cannon Lipps started to hit the weight room hard. After a few months, Lipps had gained roughly 20 lbs., and he was ready to transition from junior varsity quarterback to running back and linebacker for the Fountain Hills High School football team.

In the first game of the year, Lipps returned an intercepted punt for a touchdown. He would finish his first varsity season with 6.5 sacks, the most on the team and second most in the region, and he rushed for 151 yards on 17 carries for an average of 8.9 yards per rush. He also scored two rushing touchdowns.

“It felt pretty easy,” Lipps said. “Like I said, last year when I played quarterback, it was the same thing as running back. I’d just snap the ball and run. When I got in the game, it just felt like second nature. Like I didn’t really need to feel worried about anything after the first snap. Now I just got it down, and I love running back.”

Lipps was one of several Falcons to find a new position on the field this year under first-year head coach Sean Moran. Last year’s coach, Jimmy Curtis, got the football team to work out at Peaks Athletic Club before Moran’s hiring, and then Moran and his new staff had their own plans for summer workouts.

Every Falcon credit’s assistant coach Jake Affronti for the lack of injuries this season, and their improvement in the weight room. The former ASU Sun Devil strength and conditioning coach’s preseason workouts helped Fountain Hills have its best season in years.

“I don’t really know how to put it, but football is a hard sport to really get into,” senior Gavin Furi said. “Like, it’s hard to really lower your shoulder for the first time or get hit for the first time and this year, especially for a lot of kids, that switch just flipped, and I think that’s just Jake Affronti. That dude is insane with encouragement.”

The results weren’t all there right away, but the Falcons were an improved squad this season. They started 1-4 but ended 5-5 after a four-game win streak in the middle of the season. The Falcons went 3-2 and finished third in their region, 3A Metro East.

The Falcons scored 20 or more points once in the first four games, but they averaged 50.25 points over the four-game win streak. Senior quarterback Spencer Nelson got the streak started with a 40-28 win over the reigning 2A state champions, Arizona Lutheran Academy, and he threw for 277 yards and four touchdowns in that game.

“We’re going into region time, that was preseason before, but it really wasn’t,” Nelson said. “Everything needs to be crisp and clean. We need to run our region basically, that’s how we can make the playoffs. We just had that mentality.”

Nelson thrived in Moran’s new offensive system. The senior only played on offense in nine of the 10 games, but he still had more yards and touchdowns this year, and he led the region in total yards.

Nelson averaged 217.6 passing yards, 40.3 rushing yards and two passing touchdowns per game. He led the region in pass yards with 1,959, and he was sixth in pass yards for all 3A quarterbacks. Nelson’s 363 rush yards helped him finish 14th for total yards across the entire state.

“I was probably 148 lbs. or 150 lbs. at the beginning of summer,” Nelson said. “I got up to 160 and I was squatting 315 at one point. I felt sick, and then obviously that helped me on the field, just by believing more in myself. Then coach Moran with the scheme and the plays, letting me run and stuff, it helped me out a lot.”

Nelson threw 14 touchdowns and 13 interceptions as a junior, and 18 touchdowns and 15 interceptions this year. He rushed 16 times for 81 yards as a junior, and he eclipsed that total in one game this season. The senior said he felt the offense click the most against Bourgade Catholic, and Nelson gained 96 rush yards and scored three rushing touchdowns in that game alone.

“Last year, I feel like we were scared to make a mistake, but this year, if they scored a touchdown on us, we were going to get it back next time,” senior Brandon Despain said.

Nelson took a step forward, but so did his receivers. Last year, Savion Boone had 801 yards and was 36 yards shy from exactly 50% of Nelson’s pass yards. This season, Nelson spread it around much more.

His top receiver did not catch a pass last season. Junior Gannon Young caught 36 receptions for 711 yards and 8 touchdowns this year. Young led the region in yardage and finished sixth on the reception leaderboard for 3A.

Senior Diesel Giger was second on the team with 21 receptions for 305 yards, where last season he had 14 catches for 202 yards. Giger played both sides and had four sacks and interceptions each. He was tied for second in the region for interceptions and tied for sixth in the region with sacks.

Senior Gavin Furi was third on the team with 291 pass yards, and he was the lead rusher with 591 yards on 103 carries. Furi had four games of 100-plus rushing yards, and he finished with the ninth most total yards in the region this year.

Senior Ryan Dyhrkopp was sixth on the Falcons for pass yards, but he was explosive. Dyhrkopp averaged 15.9 yards per catch, second only to Young, and he caught three touchdowns. He also led the team in total tackles and finished third in the region with 86.

The Falcons ran into a buzz saw at the end of their season. The Falcons lost a very competitive game to Payson by way of a blocked field goal in the last minute and they were crushed by No. 8 Valley Christian in the season finale.

“It was definitely a momentum killer losing against Payson,” Lipps said. “I think if we had won that game, then the outcome of the Valley game would’ve obviously been a lot different. We all thought we were in it still, and we all knew we were in it still, and we all definitely wanted to win that Valley game.”

The graduating Falcons leave the reigns to current sophomores and juniors to pick up next season. Moran still wants to take the Falcons to the playoffs, and he intends to encourage his players to play other sports, and he’ll start his offseason workouts much sooner this year.

“These guys worked really hard all year and they got better and better, and that’s really all you want,” Moran said. “Even though the very last showing of us was not that positive, we still got better all year long.”