Vincent Deangelis is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Camelback High School for AZPreps265.com

PHOENIX- You could say the reason Camelback High School won Friday night was because of its dominant defensive performance, or because of its transcendent two-man backfield, or because of star wideout Dejon Packard, but all of them deserve equal praise for an assertive victory Friday night.

The Spartans (3-2) were firing on all cylinders as they beat the Maricopa Rams 27-17 in a commanding home victory to extend their win streak to three games after starting the season 0-2. “Every week there is always somebody else stepping up,” said Spartan head coach Brandon McNutt. “There is always somebody different”. 

The game started off with fireworks for Camelback. A 40-yard kickoff return by Dejon Packard was followed on the next play by a 60-yard rushing touchdown by running back Amos Slokan. It was the beginning of Slokan's third consecutive 100-yard rushing night. 

Maricopa counter-punched immediately. On the ensuing kickoff Ram returner Kyree Washington took it to the house to make the score 7-7 just :44 into the contest. 

A little less than two minutes later Maricopa fumbled the ball and Spartan outside linebacker Adrian Perez recovered. That set up a Packard touchdown to make the score 14-7 Spartans. 

The score stayed the same until late in the second quarter because of Camelback’s defense, despite its young core picking up four penalties in the first half. “The O-line couldn’t hold me,” says defensive end Eddie Cortez, who was in the quarterback’s face all night with two sacks. “Even after the flags, I was still excited the entire game”.  

Nevertheless, Maricopa embarked on a drive beore halftime that took more than five minutes off the clock. The long possession ended in a field goal for the Rams to narrow the margin to 14-10 at halftime. 

Maricopa took its first lead, 17-14,  in the third quarter on another touchdown from Washington. A few minutes later Camelback's Packard dropped a touchdown pass in the endzone on fourth down. The situation began to look grim for the Spartans. 

“When you drop a pass, you get really down because you have a bunch of supporters watching you,” said Packard. “You gotta be ready for the next play. It’s all mental”.

Packard was indeed ready for the next play, as when the Spartans got the ball back, the stud receiver took a slant route 55 yards to paydirt to give Camelback not only the lead but all the momentum. “I thought, Next drive I got them, I can’t let them down,” said Packard. “I had to do my little thing and got a slant to the endzone”. 

From that point on it was all Camelback on both sides of the ball. After the Rams advanced to Camelback’s 35-yard line, the defense came up clutch and sacked Rams quarterback Damian Logan on thirrd down. Maricopa went for it on fourth down, but failed to convert with a little more than nine minutes remaining in the game.

The next drive was the dagger for the Rams. Camelback sophomore running back Shawn Pereira darted through the Maricopa defense for a 60-yard touchdown run to highlight the Spartan backfield’s night, which looked like a two-headed monster the whole game between Slokan and Pereira. Slokan(left) and Pereira(right) (Vincent Deangelis/AZPreps365)

The Spartan defense kept their shape the rest of the way and secured the victory after another sack close to the end zone to force another failed fourth-down attempt. “They (Maricopa) surprised me with their gameplan,” said Coach McNutt. “We prepared for something different, but we just came after them and made it hard to throw the football”. 

The red-hot Spartans have a bye next week but will be back to play their homecoming game the following week. “We trying to put Camelback to where it never been at,” said Packard “We gonna grind all week, no days off”.

Camelback takes on the North Canyon Rattlers (1-4) in their first sectional game on October 15.