As the familiar song lyrics by Three Dog Night go, “one is the loneliest number,” this certainly reigns true for the loneliest player on the football team, senior punter Gavin Sherwood. Although Sherwood also doubles as a kicker, he still has only been given one or two opportunities to punt in the entire 2017 season.

The lack of punting is largely due to the fact that the offense this year is incredibly strong and has drastically improved since previous seasons.

Although, Sherwood isn’t too disappointed in the lack of punting due to the fact that he is still able to play in games and has scored a substantial number of points this season, kicking for most of them.

Sherwood said, “Our offense is really good and we have receivers like [D’Shayne] James, [Connor] Boyd, and [Colby] Dickie that play and everyone else that can catch and convert on the third down.”

The offensive line has proved to be successful in not needing to utilize their punter this season. They have worked on refining various plays and coming together better as a team for improvement all together.

Senior offensive lineman, Kaiden Baxter said, “our path protection is perfect and I think we just give Brock enough time to make some big plays. We go out there knowing we aren’t gonna punt, I think that’s our mindset.”

The offensive team goes out hoping to play well enough and to the best of their abilities in order to ensure that they do not need to punt to gain any points.

Coach Preston Jones said, “We try to stick to our fundamentals, try not to hit the homerun every play, and just let the offense run itself. Stay simple, stay basic, run your keys and everyone does their own little job.”

By letting each individual do their own job, it helped immensely in the improvement of the offensive line as a whole throughout the duration of the season.

Senior Zack Neff said, “Ever since the Chandler game we have gotten a lot better. We trust trust each other more and we work together more.”

The team as a whole has become more close as the season has worn on. The team is feeling extremely confident heading into their final game of the 2017 season. They have high hopes of defeating the defending state champions, Chandler Wolves, this coming Saturday, Dec. 2 at the University of Arizona stadium.