Alicia Armendariz is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Bourgade Catholic High School for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX– The Bourgade Catholic Eagles offense struggled Thursday night, suffering a 69-0 loss at home against the Benjamin Franklin Chargers. 

The Chargers defense did the heavy lifting by scoring three touchdowns from five interceptions. Chargers sophomore quarterback Gavin Wyler completed two of his six passes for 70 yards and two touchdowns. Senior running back Ridge Allen had five carries for 67 yards and  two touchdowns. 

“All I know is that we just need to prepare for ALA Ironwood next week,” Allen said. “To take away what we can take away from this game… get the most out of it that we can.”

Allen has been an essential part of the Chargers’ success as he has rushed for 549 yards and nine touchdowns in five games this season.

“Ridge is important to our season. He's important to our entire program,” Chargers coach Danny Norris said. “He's a terrific football player. I think he’s the best running back in the 3A conference. I think he might be one of the best running backs in the entire state.”

The Eagles had a standout game from junior Devin Lopez , who plays on both sides of the ball. Lopez caught three passes for 15 yards as a wide receiver and had one interception from his  cornerback position. 

The Eagles’ sophomore quarterback, Jeremiah Steuter, completed seven of 21 passes for 23 yards but had five interceptions. 

The Eagles' struggles may have been due partly to the fact that they were using more freshman starters than usual.

“We keep making the same mistakes,” Eagles coach Chris Crockett said. “We got to find a way to get through to these kids because the same things are beating us. The problem is that when you have a mistake, it kind of just snowballs like an avalanche and builds upon itself, and you can see it in the kids’ body language.”

Crockett uses his experience as a retired Phoenix Police Department commander to encourage his team after a rough outing.

“What I want to tell them when we get down is there’s no such thing as a 55-point touchdown,” Crockett said. “My message to them is the most important play is the next play, not what happened before.”

After being up 55-0 at halftime, the Chargers pulled all of their starting players in order to prepare them for next week's matchup against the undefeated ALA - Ironwood Warriors. 

“Ironwood is a very good football program,” Norris said. “Coach Dawson has done a terrific job there in just his second year. It’s probably the game of the week, would be my guess in 3A. We know they’re going to be ready because last year's game didn’t go their way and they remember it.”

Last year, the Chargers beat the Warriors 49-7.

Bourgade Catholic (0-4, 0-2) travels to Valley Christian (2-3, 1-2) next Friday at 7 p.m. Benjamin Franklin (4-1, 4-0) will travel to ALA - Ironwood (5-0, 3-0) next Friday at 7 p.m.