With its head coach sitting in the stands, the Camp Verde High School football team stood up quite well to top ranked Northwest Christian Academy on Friday, Sept. 24, but lost 28-0.

The Cowboys managed to get the ball inside the 10-yard line three times Friday night in front of a solid homecoming crowd, but didn’t score one point.

“I think the kids worked their butts off against Northwest Christian. We had a few chances to score but just couldn’t, especially those three times we had first and goal situations,” Steege said.

Steege, who was suspended one game due to his conduct in the Arizona Lutheran Academy game Sept. 17 that got him ejected and escorted off the field by a Phoenix police officer, sat in the stands with his wife among the fans during the game Friday night.

“It was interesting. There’s a lot of things you see up in the stands that you usually don’t see on the field,” Steege said. “I can’t say I would want to do it again, though.”

Northwest Christian scored on its first two possessions, making it a 14-0 before Camp Verde alumni could blink.

With it looking like the Crusaders were going to blow out Camp Verde, the defense stiffened up and didn’t allow Northwest Christian to score again until late in the third quarter.

The problem was the Cowboys couldn’t get it together offensively, and without much of a passing game to speak of, Camp Verde managed only 247 yards of total offense, the majority of which came on the ground.

Junior backup quarterback Deshon Tripp took the snaps under center Friday, with junior starting quarterback Jake Spleiss out with a bruised thigh.

Tripp completed only three of nine passes for 41 yards and ran nine times for 13 yards.

Casey Jahn ran 26 times for 158 yards and two touchdowns behind that big offensive line against Camp Verde.

Northwest Christian, on the other hand, put together 334 yards of total offense including the four touchdowns.

“I think they outweighed us by 50 pounds each, so in the second half, they just lined up and pounded us,” Steege said.

With the loss, the Cowboys drop their record to 2-3 overall on the season and 0-1 in 2A Central region play.

Next up, Camp Verde will hit the road and play North Pointe Preparatory at Moon Valley High School on Friday, Oct. 1.

Camp Verde will then return home for three straight contests, the first coming against No. 2 Scottsdale Christian Academy on Friday, Oct. 8.

Kickoff for both games is set for 7 p.m.