Myles Aaron Dunson is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Verrado High School for AZPreps365.com.  

 BUCKEYE—Fireworks lit up the Friday night sky as the Verrado Vipers continued their hot streak, beating the South Mountain Jaguars, 55-0, behind Malachi Wilt’s six touchdown passes.

Wilt put on a show for the Homecoming crowd, scoring on every drive he was in. The senior completed 19 of 22 passes for  349 yards.

“We don’t have set plays for [our wide receivers],” Verrado coach Brett Davis said. “We just have a systematic process, how we do it, and find the open guy.”

 South Mountain started the game off in a great position, recovering their own kickoff after Verrado dropped the ball. The Vipers defense made up for the special teams mistake when senior defensive back Kody Quinn picked off Jaguars sophomore quarterback Bernard Butler.  

Wilt capitalized on the interception by marching down the field and completing a 7-yard TD pass to junior wide receiver Carter Bliss, putting the Vipers up 7-0 with 9:52 left in the first quarter.  

The Vipers defense only allowed the Jaguars to gain two yards on their next possession, which ended with a punt. After receiving the ball again, Verrado drove down the field with a 72-yard, seven-play drive that ended in a 9-yard TD connection between Wilt and junior wide receiver Eli Mock, making the score 14-0 with 5:43 left in the first.  

It was deja vu for the Vipers as the defense forced another three-and-out, and Wilt found his third receiver on the day, senior Travis Kamp, for a 45-yard touchdown bomb, pushing the score to 21-0 with 3:20 left in the first quarter.  
After failing to make any progress on the scoreboard, South Mountain coach Evan Gammage decided to switch out Butler for senior quarterback Noah Vargas.  

“We have a young group of quarterbacks on our team,” Gammage said. “So we’re honestly still looking to try to find our guy. Looking to get that consistent guy.  

“All of our quarterbacks are brand new to football in general, so we go with the guy who’s basically being most consistent for the night and giving us the best shot.”  

In Vargas’ first drive at quarterback, he ended up throwing an interception that senior defensive back Adrian Ochoa ran back for an 80-yard pick-six, which put Verrado on top 28-0 with 1:49 seconds still left in the first quarter.  

As the first quarter finished and the second quarter got started, the Jaguars put together their best drive of the day, marching down the field in 19 plays that ended in the red zone.   

However, the Vipers defense struck again, killing the drive at the 11-yard line.   
After being pushed back to the 6-yard line due to a holding penalty, Wilt drove the Vipers to the opposite end of the field, completing all six of his passes, ending in a 10-yard TD pass to Bliss, making the score 35-0 with 4:49 left in the half.   

The Wilt-Bliss connection was unstoppable. In the following offensive drive for the Vipers Bliss caught his third TD pass of the day. This 38-yard catch came on a pass that was meant for Kamp, but what was bobbled in the air, ballooning the score to 42-0 with 3:29 left in the half.  

“Tip drill,” Bliss said. “I caught it and I ran it in. I mean, I felt sad for [Kamp] because he didn’t score and I already had a couple of them, but it was nice. It was a good night.”  

The running clock started the second half as the Jaguars were unable to score again, punting the ball back to the Vipers. Verrado scored again as Wilt found Mock in the end zone for the second time, starting the fourth quarter with a TD that made the score 48-0 due to a missed extra point.  

Verrado sent in their reserves after holding the Jaguars to eight yards and four plays on the following possession. The Vipers found the end zone one final time with sophomore running back Trey Oliver running in a two-yard TD, ending the game at 55-0.  

Verrado (4-1) will play at Millennium (4-1) next Friday at 7 p.m.  

South Mountain (0-5) will play at Camelback (0-5) next Friday at 7 p.m.