Nathaniel Tropea is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Cactus High School for AZPreps365.com

The Cactus Cobras' home field wasn't enough of a safe haven as Cactus fell short against Desert Mountain, 37-13, on Thursday night in 5A non-region game.

The Wolves (4-0)  scored the first touchdown of the game to grab the early lead.

Sparked by a Braiden Lagafuaina interception to end the first quarter, Cactus (2-2) found the end zone when Nikko Boncore-Montoya caught a touchdown pass. The Cobras tried going for a two-point conversion but weren't able to get it, as the Wolves still led 7-6.

 On the ensuing drive the Wolves took their time marching downfield as they completed another touchdown and extra point, extending their lead 14-6.

The Cactus defense was back on the field after a punt and the Wolves kept the momentum going and pushed the lead to 21-6 before haltime.

The Cobras were not at full strength and it led to some of the struggles on defense. 

"Several of our starters were out of the game this week," Cactus defensive backs and special teams coach Eric Wright said. "The good thing about it is a few of our kids got a chance to get some game time reps and defensively we battled to the end, we (created) about four turnovers." 

Lagafuaina was hurt during the game and he feels this one wasn't a true representative of what Cactus can be this year.

"We're gonna be good, it's just one of those weeks where we had a lot of guys down," he said, "but we came out did what we had to do. Next week we'll regroup, I'll get my hand check out and onto Peoria."

The teams traded turnovers, including two interceptions by Cactus' Gabriel Sotelo, the next few drives before Cactus did enough offensively to kick a field goal, but missed it to keep the game at 21-6.

A pick six by the Desert Mountain defense pushed Cactus' deficit to 28-6 and eventually to 30-6 on an intentional grounding was called on the Cobras for a safety.

That was made worse when Desert Mountain took the enusing punt and drove down the field to make it 37-6.

Cactus closed out the scoring when Boncore-Montoya returned a punt for a score to make it 37-13. 

Cactus' Kruma Harris and wanted to what he looks forward to for next week's game.

"We have some things we need to adjust on," he said. "Our team knows our assignments. We know what we can do and what we're capable of. We had a rocky start last season and still went to state, not to say this season is like last season but we're going to give it our all."