Head coach Jason Henslin wants his team to “leave the past in the past” after the Fountain Hills High School football team had a challenging start to their season.

On Aug. 17, the Falcons hosted Northwest Christian at home in the Falcon Nest. Northwest Christian, a senior heavy team, beat Fountain Hills 63-0.

The Falcons’ next game will be this Friday, Aug. 24. The Falcons will be traveling to Buckeye to take on Odyssey Institute at 7 p.m.

Going in, Henslin said he knew that the Falcons’ first game would be a tough one.

“I knew that (Northwest Christian) was one of the best teams in the state and I knew it would be a tough game,” Henslin said. “I didn’t expect for it to be that one-sided.”

Both offensively and defensively the Falcons struggled to get into a steady rhythm during the game and one of the reasons for that was the amount of injuries suffered throughout the four quarters of play.

“So our quarterback, Shane Davenport, is out for six weeks with a broken collar bone,” Henslin explained. “Then Logan Stephenson has a potential serious knee injury but we are still waiting on reports on that. Leyton Kauffman had an ankle injury but he’ll be back. Then we had a couple of other guys get banged up but they’ll be back. ”

Until word comes back about Stephenson’s knee, Davenport’s broken collar bone is the most serious injury the Falcons face. With their starting quarterback out, the team is looking to Bruin Smith to lead them in the coming weeks.

“The good news is that Bruin Smith, our new starter, has been prepping all summer not just as the backup, but as JV starter,” Henslin said. “So he is ready to be a starter. He actually impressed us a lot; he didn’t look nervous out there. We are excited to get him into some more comfortable situations.”

Henslin doesn’t want the Falcons to let this first game get in their heads too much.

“My big thought over the weekend was I hope that this doesn’t bring them down too much,” Henslin said. “I hope they see the big picture that, yeah, we had our toughest opponent of the year week one, but we can’t give up now. There are plenty of games left and not everyone is the number one team in the state.”

Along with getting Smith settled into his new role, Henslin wants to work on conditioning the team this week at practice since, due to injuries, some players will be in for longer.

The Falcons are looking for some “redemption,” as Henslin puts it, this Friday against Odyssey Institute.