The Fountain Hills High School football team won 22-14 on the road at Dysart last Friday, Aug. 26. The Demons struck first and fast, but the Falcons made in-game adjustments and came back from a 14-0 deficit to win.

The Demons scored within the first four minutes of the game and made it 14-0 by 11:15 in the second quarter. Among their adjustments, the Falcons changed their run scheme from a zone-based run to be more power and gap based, and they started to move the chains.

Head coach Sean Moran added that Dysart’s defensive front was different than their film, and he came up with adjustments on a white board on the fly. He was proud of his linemen and said it showed their growth to be able to adapt.

Senior Ryan Dyhrkopp ran in a touchdown with 2:20 left in the first half to make it 14-6. The two-point conversion failed, but after a big pass play down the sideline with one minute left, senior Spencer Nelson threw his first touchdown of the night. Dyhrkopp was successful on the two-point conversion and the Falcons tied it 14-14 right before halftime.

“With all the adjustments we had made right before halftime, we felt that we were in the right spot schematically to be able to attack their weak points,” Moran said. “It wasn’t crazy in the locker room in terms of changing X, Y and Z, because we had already done that on the field. We just reemphasized the things we needed to do, got input from the offensive linemen, and I gave a little bit of a speech, but it was pretty much player led by Casey [Osborne].

“He took those guys and let them know that he wanted to get a win and wanted us to finish it out,” Moran continued. “I let him roll with that speech. Anytime you get that it can be kind of special.”

Senior defensive back Casey Osborne did not play in week one but played very well against Dysart, according to Moran. Osborne was kept on limited snaps to ensure a healthy return, but Moran said all the defensive backs played well. Junior Gannon Young made an impressive pass break up in the air, and senior Tory Johnson allowed an early score but rebounded and played technically sound the rest of the night, according to Moran.

Moran likes the depth and athleticism available to him with his defensive backs. With Osborne back in the lineup, Nelson started at quarterback and played all night long. According to Nelson, he threw 224 yards, two touchdowns, one interception and ran for almost 50 yards.

Nelson’s interception was on a fourth and long try near the redzone in the first quarter. The Falcons didn’t have any other turnovers, and after Osborne’s speech, the Falcons scored within the first four minutes of the third quarter to lead 22-14.

“He was just like, ‘hey listen up’ and we all looked at Casey,” Nelson said. “He said, ‘do not let up, keep the pressure on them, we are going to win this game.’ We got amped and started yelling and it was pretty sweet. You could feel the momentum switching over to us.”

Nelson threw touchdown passes to Young and senior Eddie Galvan. Nelson made several plays with his legs and had several nice passes while he was flushed outside of the pocket.

“Spencer came to life. His brain is in such a great place as a quarterback,” Moran said. “He made some really great reads and good throws and good pocket movement too. I would say that was a huge thing. It was a fairly clean pocket all night long, but when he needed to make a little move here and there, he was able to do it for himself and find guys open down field.”

The Falcons threw more than they ran against Dysart, partly because senior Gavin Furi was out for precautionary reasons. Dyhrkopp, junior Gabe Haynes and sophomore Jack Boersma handled rushing duties and the Falcons collected around 100 yards on the ground combined. Moran said he wants play calling to be split halfway between run plays and pass plays, but said different games call for different things, and he wants to see a 50% split by the end of the season, not necessarily in each game.

Moran said the Falcons’ defense settled in after the early scores. According to MaxPreps, the Falcons defense limited the Demons to just 103 total yards, 60 yards in the air and 43 rushing yards. Last week, per MaxPreps, Chino Valley racked up 343 total yards on the Falcons’ defense.

“We had one interception early in the game, but beyond that we really held time of possession quite a bit,” Moran said. “It helped the defense stay off the field. If we can keep them off the field, we can keep them fresh to be able to get out there and run and get after the quarterback with their different blitz packages.”

The Falcons had no major injuries and look to work Osborne and Furi back into rotations completely. The team will study film and continue to work this week until their next game on Friday at Scottsdale Christian Academy. The Falcons (1-1) will travel to face the Eagles (1-1) this Friday, Sept. 2, with kickoff at 7 p.m.