Injuries didn’t keep the Phoenix Arcadia football team from starting region play on the right foot.
After a sluggish start from both offenses, the Titans (5-1) defeated Chandler Seton Catholic (2-4), 21-6 Friday night at Arcadia in their 4A East Sky Region opener.
While he said he felt his team played good enough to win, Arcadia coach Jim Bevell said there were too many “bonehead plays.”
Arcadia committed eight penalties for 80 yards, as several of its players were playing new positions for the first time.
“It’s one of those things where we can’t make mistakes like we did, but we’re going to take the win,” Bevell said.
Bevell said two injuries at running back forced him to convert Tim Bork from wide receiver to running back. After Bork went down in the first quarter, Bevell went with converted fullback Trevor Brock as his primary rusher.
Arcadia broke the offensive funk both teams were in midway through the first quarter.
After a pair of rushing plays for negative yards, Arcadia quarterback Colby Kirkegaard dropped back and hit wide receiver David Carroll with an 8-yard pass for the game’s first touchdown.
Seton got an offensive rhythm of its own going with running backs Jon McDonald and Corey Vaughan to start the second quarter. The two combined on runs to help drive the Sentinels to the Arcadia 12-yard line.
Seton quarterback Lucas McCarville then lofted a pass into the end zone that was brought down by Nick Gleiser for a touchdown. However, Arcadia maintained a 7-6 lead by blocking Seton’s extra-point attempt.
Seton swung the momentum back in its direction by recovering an onside kick, but went three and out before pinning Arcadia inside the 20-yard line with a punt. But Brock broke free on a 60-yard run to set up Kirkegaard’s 12-yard touchdown pass to Joey Artigue, extending the Arcadia lead to 14-6.
Kirkegaard finished the game with 74 passing yards, in addition to 27 receiving yards that came on a catch that eventually led to a 2-yard touchdown run by Brock.
