Mihir Sinhasan is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Sunrise Mountain High School for AZPreps365.com

The Sunrise Mountain Mustangs (2-3) start region play on Friday with a road trip to Buckeye to face the Verrado Vipers (3-2).

With a victory, the Mustangs would match last year's win total. They would also pick up a 5A Desert West win after going winless against regional foes in 2022.

”To get back to .500, back to 3-3, knowing some of the teams we have played, it would be a nice win for us,” Sunrise Mountain head coach Steve Decker said. ”I’d be excited about that.”

This is a matchup that has shifted from routs to close games over the past four years. In 2019, Sunrise Mountain beat Verrado 41-6. They followed it up with two wins against the Vipers in 2020, the first 42-14 and the second 35-14. In 2021, the Mustangs won 46-36.

Last year, Verrado got the upper hand, winning 6-0 on the road off a fourth quarter touchdown caught by then-sophomore wide receiver Caden Gingg. It was the Mustangs’ first loss to the Vipers since 2015, when they fell 41-21.

This year, the team has a new offensive coordinator in Taylor Mazzone, who brings to Sunrise Mountain experience as an offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at various colleges, most recently Idaho State. Mazzone’s goal is to develop a plan that the Mustangs can execute with the team’s new mentality.

“Our mindset is [to] establish the run, and put our athletes in space,” Mazzone said. “And so, making sure that our guys can be in position when they think that’s their strength at that position, attack from sideline to sideline and make sure that the defense has to struggle tapping us out in space.”

The Mustangs enter this game fresh off a 66-6 road win over West Point. Junior quarterback Vanden Dugger led the way through the air with 235 yards and three touchdowns. Senior running back Parker Owens led the way on the ground with 97 yards and two touchdowns.

Dugger, who made his second varsity start in the loss to Verrado last year, has grown from the "bright lights, bright action, new team, new everything" to step in and get better results this year, to which he credits his coaching staff. He looks to help his team in any way possible to get the win on Friday.

“As a quarterback, you selfishly might want to just be like ‘let’s go throw the ball [and] get touchdowns.’ But whatever gets us the win, I’m okay with,” Dugger said. “Obviously, we got a great running back, Parker Owens. He might have to take some for us.”

The common opponent between the two teams is Desert Mountain (5-0), who handed both sides a home loss earlier this year. Sunrise Mountain lost 31-7, while Verrado lost 47-0.

The Verrado Vipers will wrap up a three-game homestand when they face the Mustangs on Friday. They won the first two games handily, beating Ironwood 54-7 on September 21 after beating Goldwater 49-13 on September 15.

“Verrado is always a well-coached, disciplined team. They play hard,” Decker said. “Playing a quality football team like Verrado is going to get us off to a good start in the Desert West region.”