Basic buries Desert Oasis

Desert Oasis football coach praised Basic's offense before his team faced the Wolves on Friday night.

It turns out Basic's defense isn't too shabby either.

The fifth-ranked Wolves held Desert Oasis to just 89 yards of offense and rolled to a 50-0 home win.

"Our defense was going great tonight," senior defensive end Kendahl Blakely said. "Everybody played their position and played our keys and locked them up."

Basic was especially effective at shutting down the Diamondbacks' running game. Desert Oasis (2-1) had rushed for 532 yards in its first two games, led by senior Ty'shun McClinton, who was third in the area with 353 yards entering play on Friday.

But the Wolves (2-0) shut McClinton down, holding him to 6 yards on 14 carries. As a team, Desert Oasis had 6 yards on 30 carries.

"We were really focused on their running game," Basic coach Jeff Cahill said. "We knew it was their strength, and we wanted to take that away and our kids did a great job."

Basic players swarmed McClinton all night, giving him no room to maneuver. Six of his 14 carries went for a loss or no gain.

"It was 10, 11 of us every time on the ball," Blakely said. "We put them down on the ground and they didn't want to get back up."

Cahill said that gang-tackling mentality has been a focus of his team early.

"We're priding ourselves this year on flying around, 11 guys to the ball," Cahill said. "And so far the first two games, our kids have responded well. And we like our defense right now."

The offense wasn't too bad on Friday either, as Basic showed numerous weapons.

Jake Waldren got Basic started early, rushing for a pair of first-quarter touchdowns. He tiptoed down the right sideline for a 30-yard touchdown run with 9:44 to go in the first quarter, and added a 12-yard scoring run on the team's next possession to make it 13-0 with 4:52 left to go in the first quarter.

Basic's offense stalled for a bit after that, as penalties helped limit the Wolves to a field goal until John Funaki capped an eight-play, 68-yard scoring drive by plowing his way in from 4 yards out to make it 23-0 with 1:15 to go in the half.

But the slowdown on offense didn't hurt, as Basic held Desert Oasis without a first down in the first half. The Diamondbacks didn't move the chains until the 10:28 mark of the third quarter when quarterback Brannon Flowers scrambled for 2 yards on fourth-and-1.

Basic finished with 220 rushing yards, led by Waldren, who had eight carries for 72 yards. Four other players had 20 or more yards on the ground.

"We've got a nice stable," Cahill said. "In that first half we were killing ourselves. I think we had four or five holding penalties that got a couple called back. But we've got a real nice stable of backs. We've got some power backs, we've got some quick backs, and they're tough to deal with."

Junior quarterback Aaron McAllister completed 13 of 19 passes for 203 yards, including a 43-yard scoring pass to Alexander Holm. Holm finished with three catches for 83 yards, and Frank Harris had five catches for 78 yards.

"It was good," Cahill said of the offense. "We ran a little, we passed a little. Aaron played another great game. He stepped up big for us, so we're happy with that.

"He played awesome."

Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at 702-380-4587 or dseiters@reviewjournal.com. Follow him: @DamonSeiters