GameNight Breakdown: Thunder may roll from win

The proverbial ball, slammed back by Peoria Centennial last week, is once more nearing the edge for Desert Vista and beginning to roll.

A 56-12 win -- like the one the Thunder (4-2) got Friday night over visiting Phoenix St. Mary's (2-4) -- will do that for a football team.

• Desert Vista football index
• Photo slideshow from the win
• See also: GameNight: DV crushes St. Mary's 56-12

"We did what we set out to do, and that was get on a roll," said DV coach Dan Hinds. "Now we're on a win streak, and that's good."

It was a momentum-seizer sorely needed following last week's 20-7 dismantling at the hands of Centennial, arguably the state's top team.

And while Friday's opponent was no Centennial, or Chandler Hamilton, for that matter, nearly everything went DV's way on this night.

Things weren't perfect, but they were right.

Its defense forced five turnovers -- one of which defensive end Chris Redding returned 12 yards for the game's opening touchdown, and three of which resulted in other scores. And it did so without its best player, senior defensive end Danny Mullarkey, resting an injured leg.

"This was a good game to get us rolling into region (play) and get us some momentum," Redding said.

Its offense, though still not nearly as potent as the one the Thunder fielded a year ago, showed signs of improvement and spread the ball around, something DV offensive coordinator Don Rezac stresses. Eight different players scored for the Thunder.

Quarterback Cody Sokol threw for 174 yards and two scores on 10-of-15 passing, against only one interception.

Junior tight end Nick Valdez caught four passes for 102 yards and a touchdown.

Seven different running backs also saw action, led by Marcus Washington's 57 yards and one touchdown on nine carries. Two solid options may have emerged behind him in BJ Wilson (two touchdowns) and Austin Caswell (nine carries, 54 yards).

"Coach Hinds was using an analogy of how right now we're just picking up the rock, and now it's rolling, and now it's going down," Washington said. "We just have trees in our way, and next week we have Yuma. That's just another thing we have in our way that we have to get past, just bowl over them.

"We just have to keep going and going and going until we get to playoffs and then the championship."