Jared CohenThe last time the Moon Valley Rockets got out to a 5-0 start in a season was back in 2004. That team, who was led by eventual ASU wide receiving standout Chris McGaha,
went on to go 14-0 going through long time west side powers of Centennial and then Cactus to secure a state championship.
Going into the 2014 season, Moon Valley had just five total wins in its first two seasons under Head Coach Sam Jacobs. So far in five weeks into 2014, the Rockets have matched the five wins and have done so without any losses in the process.
“This is probably one of the most fun groups I have had the chance to coach in my whole career,” said Jacobs. “It’s a good group of kids who get along with each other. They have bought into the system and we were able to ask them to be able to do things and they do it.”
Moon Valley has gotten incrementally better over each of the last two and a half years. Part of the reason is because of the current senior class. Much of this group was sophomores playing on varsity for Jacobs who now have spent three years in this system and have have taken their lumps to learn what it takes to be successful. One of those sophomores turned seniors under Jacobs is their starting quarterback Shannon Burton who has had a monster season thus far.
“We have a more talented team that has more heart,” mentioned Burton who is one of the team captains. “Than every team that I have played with at least. So I feel we have gotten off to a great start but now have to be even better from now on.”
“Shannon (Burton) and a couple others were on varsity with us that first year and since, it has kind of been a little title wave,” added Jacobs. “Little by little we have pulled a few more in and then a few more in and now they are the senior group that is leading and it will be the biggest senior group I’ve had since I’ve been here.”
The Rockets are proving to be battle tested with a hard fought win over a tough Greenway team to start the season and then blowing out the competition ever since. They are outscoring their opponents by a mark of 229-105 over their five game win streak.
“We have a lot of speed on this team,” mentioned Jacobs. “We kind of knew that coming in because we have track stars all over the place, we’ve got basketball kids, we’ve got speed. When we are clicking, we are going fast and defensively, we are clicking when we are physical. But we are still learning on how to be that dominant defense that we want to be.”
While the unblemished first half of the season has been nice, it is not their goal for the season and they know a lot of work is still left to be done.
“We are working harder every week concentrating on the next game and worrying about the other ones later,” stated Burton. “So just one game at a time. We’re not getting to cocky which we have no reason to. 5-0 is not really a big deal. We are just trying to get to where we want to be.”
