All it took for Camp Verde football to rebound from a season-opening loss was one game. And a little rain.
Junior Jordan Reay ran for 175 yards and three touchdowns, while quarterback Dion Fortune came off the bench in his second-ever high school game on a muddy field to throw for another three scores and 108 yards as Camp Verde evened its record at 1-1 with a 43-0 shutout of Surprise Paradise Honors High School on Friday, Sept. 6.
“Our kids are better than they think they are. Tonight, they saw how well they could do,” Cowboys Head Coach Steve Darby said. “This win is a huge confidence-builder.”
In the final minute of what had appeared to be a scoreless first quarter, Reay put the Cowboys on the board with a 70-yard touchdown run on a sweep down the left sideline. This followed a block by sophomore Alex Suarez of a 32-yard Panther field goal attempt.
That would turn out to be the closest to a score Paradise Honors would come all night. Reay took a pitchout another eight yards in the second quarter to make it a 13-0 lead after senior Tyler Dickey’s extra-point kick was blocked.
“It felt great, to do this,” Reay said. “It pumped our team up.”
Then the rains came — and with them, even better fortune for the Cowboys. Dion Fortune, to be exact.
A hard second-quarter hit temporarily took out starting junior quarterback Bodie Holowell, who was replaced by the freshman Fortune. Immediately, Reay and senior backfield mate Isiah McReynold strung together three end sweeps on the ground for 65 yards. Reay would have put another six points on the board had a 26-yard Reay run not been called back on an illegal procedure penalty.
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Sept. 11, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
