Thirteen for 22, 140 yards passing, 27 yards on the ground, two touchdowns and two interceptions.

Most high school quarterbacks would’ve taken that first half stat line in a heartbeat Friday night.

But for the man who it actually belongs to – Pinnacle’s Spencer Rattler – he was none too pleased with his, or his team’s first-half performance Friday, despite heading to the locker room up 19-0 over Mesa Mountain View.

“The first half was one of the worst halves I’ve ever played and our team ever played,” Rattler said after Pinnacle’s 26-7 win over Mountain View in a Class 6A non-region game at Pinnacle.

Although the half ended nicely for the Pioneers – Rattler hitting wide receiver Hayden Hatten on a slant for a 3-yard touchdown with 4.7 seconds remaining – it couldn’t have started much worse.

On the first play from scrimmage, Rattler dropped back and aired it out deep, looking for a big play to start the game. That big play quickly became Mountain View’s after senior safety Tate Allen came down with his first of two interceptions on Rattler.

After the game, Rattler, who has committed to Oklahoma, wasn’t blaming the homecoming jitters or heavy wind on his interceptions; he gave credit to the Toros’ defense.

“Our passing game was not working at all,” Rattler said. “That was the most disciplined defense we’ve played, I think the best defense we’ve played so far. But I feel like they just knew everything we were doing, and honestly I felt like I was shut down – which is crazy.”

That could just be a jab at Chandler’s defense, one that gave the Pioneers their first loss a week ago, but his coach agrees the Toros’ defense held Pinnacle in check during Friday’s first half.

“They did a great job of taking away something and bringing edge pressure,” coach Dana Zupke said. “They schemed him (Rattler). They were tough on him last year. They do some good things over there.”

The intimidating passing attack all but vanished in the second half.  With the Toros’ defense seemingly having every answer to the defensive nightmare that Rattler’s arm emits, Pinnacle resorted to the ground game to hang on to its 19-point halftime lead.

The Pioneers (3-1) ran the ball 20 times in the second half, racking up 76 yards, while Rattler netted just 15 yards through the air on four attempts.

Playing it that safe in the second half can be dangerous, but every time the Toros looked like they were on the verge of making it a game, Pinnacle’s defense was there to stop them.

Down 19-7 midway through the third quarter, Mountain View’s offense was driving. That was until they decided to resort to trickery.

The Toros (2-1) ran the ball up the middle and in a last ditch effort to keep the play alive, the running back pitched the ball back to his teammate who didn’t seem to see it coming. He bobbled the ball just before it fell to the ground and the Pioneers jumped on it.

Pinnacle then took its nice field position and turned it into seven points at the other end, shutting down the window of hope that Mountain View had.

“What won us the game was our defense,” said Hatten, who caught seven passes for 78 yards and a touchdown. “Our defense played great.”

Although the Toros can travel back to Mesa with high praises from Rattler and Zupke, they wanted the win.

They didn’t settle for field goals late to make the score look better, they kept going for it on fourth down with hopes that a few conversions strung together could get them back in the game.

However, that didn’t happen as multiple passes from quarterback Brandon Nuñez, who finished 13-for-26 with 205 yards, to Jacobby Dinwiddie fell short.