Home is something you take pride in defending.  The same is true in college football, and the 17th-ranked OUAZ Spirit did just that tonight as they defeated cross-town rival Arizona Christian 37-7.  At home, the Spirit have racked up a very impressive 20-6 record, no Arizona school has beaten OUAZ at Spirit Field.
 
Luke Giron went 21-32 for 279 yards with a pair of touchdowns and an interception.  Both touchdowns came in the first quarter when the Spirit (1-0) raced out to a 21-0 lead.
 
When Luke and the offense were on the sidelines, the defense tied a school record with seven sacks on the night.  That ties the record set in the first game in school history against CETYS Universided (Aug. 25, 2018).
 
The offense did not want to be left out of the record book either, so they sat a school record for most time of possession with 35 minutes and 35 seconds, besting the previous mark against Panhandle State when they had the ball for 34 minutes and 44 seconds on March 13, 2021.
 
It was a balanced offensive night as four different backs handled the ball and 11 different receivers caught passes.
 
The first three times that the Spirit touched the ball they ended up scoring a touchdown.
 
The first drive of the night started when Marshawn Buchanan returned the opening kickoff to the 40-yard line.  A ten-yard pass to Roman Sahagun and a pair of rushes by Jh'dan Lester got the ball down to the ACU 38-yard line.  That is when Giron and Da'Vicious Wilson teamed up for the first touchdown of the season.  The drive went 60 yards in just 94 seconds.
 
After the defense held ACU to three plays and negative-one-yard, it was the offense's turn on the field again.
 
Stephen Bradford got the drive going with an eight-yard rush.  A 20-yard pass from Giron to Wilson sat up another Bradford run.  This time, Bradford took it to the house for the second touchdown of the night and a 14-0 lead, less than five minutes into the game.
 
Another defensive stand brought the ball back to the offense.  A relatively pedestrian drive by OUAZ standards, as it took the offense five plays to score.  The honors were done by Buchanan as he caught a 41-yard pass from Giron to make it 21-0 after the extra point.
 
It wasn't until the fourth drive of the night that the ACU held OUAZ out of the endzone…and off the scoreboard, as the Spirit punted the ball.  Something they did only three times during the game.
 
The fifth drive of the night stalled at the OUAZ 43 and the Spirit punted the ball where it rolled to the ACU 10.  During the ensuing Firestorm drive, the first quarter finally ended.
 
ACU finally got on the board towards the end of the second quarter when they scored on a 14-yard pass.
 
As the horn sounded for halftime, however, the Spirit added a field goal to go up 24-7.
 
Another field goal by Landon Reeves put it at 27-7 at the end of the third.
 
The Spirit added ten more points when Giron rushed for a 24-yard score and Reeves closed up shop with an extra point and a field goal to make it 37-7 when the final gun went off.
 
OUAZ opens Sooner Athletic Conference play next week when they travel to Texas Wesleyan.  TWC was picked to be the co-champs of the SAC in the pre-season conference poll.
 
The Orange and White return to Spirit Field on September 30th when Wayland Baptist out of Plainview, Texas comes to the Desert.  Get your tickets early on the Hometown Tickets App or by clicking here.