Donivan Dixon leads the way to Falcons’ victory

No matter where he is on the field, Cactus Shadows’ Donivan Dixon is a threat to score. Back him up at the 1-yard line and he’ll drive the team 99 yards. Put him inside his own 10 and he’ll fire a deep ball for a 91-yard score.

The 5-10, 180-pound senior quarterback is in his fourth year as a starter and is making his mark more as a thrower this year rather than as a dual threat. For the fourth straight week, Dixon surpassed 300 yards through the air, and for the third consecutive game, the Falcons won in a rout. Cactus Shadows defeated Paradise Valley, 56-14 to break in its new field at Falcon Stadium in Cave Creek on Friday night. Dixon, who only played in the first half, had 344 yards and threw five touchdown passes.

But it was more than just an aerial assault. Cactus Shadows brought the defense against a Trojan team that posted 63 points just a week ago and shut down the run game.

”Number 4 (Kaleb Simmons) ran for 209 yards last week. We came in, we were going to load the box and dare the QB to throw. The game plan early, we did what we were supposed to do.”

Paradise Valley as a team was limited to just 20 yards rushing for the game and had -18 at halftime.

The Standouts

Cactus Shadows WR Dillon Aspiras

The senior receiver is in his second year as a starter and has already surpassed last year’s touchdown total. Aspiras now has six TDs after getting two of them in the first half. The second of those was on the receiving end of a long bomb that resulted in a 91-yard score. Aspiras, who transferred from Horizon after his freshman year, caught five passes for 171 yards.

Cactus Shadows QB Donivan Dixon

The Northern Arizona commit has raised the bar in his senior year. Dixon, who has started 37 games for the Falcons, passed for 2,634 yards last season. He is already over 1,500 through just five games in ‘25. Dixon received an Ed Doherty medallion after his performance the week prior and is certainly not resting on those laurels. He completed his last seven attempts and finished the night 14-of-17 (82 percent). NAU Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting Tim Roschmann was on hand and had to like what he saw about his future Lumberjack.

Cactus Shadows DL Dylan Malone

The senior lineman is a CSU Pueblo commit and was a big part of the stuffing the run game plan. Malone combined with Jack Wistrom for a sack and brought pressure to rush throws for Paradise Valley. Malone is 6-4, 240 and can either come from the edge or the interior.

Cactus Shadows DB James Wade

You couldn’t miss Wade leading the team through the Falcon tunnel for the run through as he did a backflip. Cactus Shadows had four touchdowns in the first quarter on offense. Wade gave them one on the D when he picked off a pass and took it back 35 yards as the clock hit zeroes for the period. The senior corner is in his first year at CSHS after moving from Oregon.

Cactus Shadows DL Jack Yost

The 6-3, 200-pound junior DE/OLB had a third-down sack early in the first quarter to force a punt and set the tone for the Falcon defense. Yost is averaging six tackles per game and also has a pair of forced fumbles this season. Last year’s Falcon team gave up 29 points per game and found itself in some shootouts. At the halfway point, Cactus Shadows is allowing 89 points (17.8 per game) and the Falcons have outscored the opposition 151-27 over the past three games.

Every Play Counts

• After the Cactus Shadows defense started the game with a three-and-out, special teams set the offense up by blocking the punt. The Falcons started at the PV 20-yard line (and later scored).
• Paradise Valley moved the ball on its next possession and crossed midfield. But on third down, Jack Yost registered a sack forcing the Trojans to punt again.
• Once again, special teams gave Cactus Shadows a short field late in the first quarter. Colin Godfrey returned a punt 43 yards to give the Falcons the ball just outside the red zone at the 22-yard line (and later scored).
• The Cactus Shadows secondary had interceptions on three consecutive drives in the first half. Both of the grabs from Ryker Krank and Tavion Johnson were turned into touchdowns.
• In the second quarter, the Falcons faced a fourth-and-14 near midfield. They went for it and Donivan Dixon completed a 21-yard pass to Dillon Aspiras. That led to another score.
• With the large lead, and a running clock, Cactus Shadows pulled its starters for the second half and gave varsity snaps to backups Gage Millard (a sophomore) and Dylan McCullough (a junior).

Box Score

Falcons 56, Trojans 14

PV	7	0	0	7	14
CS	35	21	0	0	56

First Quarter

CS – Kaden Bowen 4 yard run (Will Torrey kick), 10:51
CS – Collin Peters 20 yard run (Torrey kick), 2:53
CS – Dillon Aspiras 22 yard pass from Donivan Dixon (Torrey kick), 1:37
PV – Layton Boyle 52 yard pass from Aarush Behera (Isaac Blanco kick), 1:20
CS – Aspiras 91 yard pass from Dixon (Torrey kick), 0:58
CS – James Wade 35 yard interception return (Torrey kick), 0:00

Second Quarter

CS – Zach Spielman 30 yard pass from Dixon (Torrey kick), 8:11
CS – Trey Peck 7 yard pass from Dixon (Torrey kick), 6:12
CS – Alex Dafnis 35 yard pass from Dixon (Torrey kick), 1:19

Third Quarter

No Scoring

Fourth Quarter

PV – Boyle 3 yard pass from Behera (Blanco kick), 1:25

Team Statistics

	Paradise Valley	Cactus Shadows
First Downs	8	16
Rushes-Yards	18-20	15-76
Comp-Att-Int	9-28-3	19-25-2
Pass Yards	107	388
Total Yards	127	464
Fumbles Lost	0	0
Penalties	0-0	12-108

Individual Statistics

Rushing

Paradise Valley – Simmons 12-24, Behera 5-1, Villa 1-(minus 5). Cactus Shadows – Peters 5-37, Millard 4-22, Dixon 1-8, Spielman 1-5, Bowen 2-4, #30 1-2, Plocher 1-(minus 2).

Passing

Paradise Valley – Behera 9-28-3, 107 yards. Cactus Shadows – Dixon 14-17-0, 344 yards, Millard 3-5-1, 24 yards, McCullough 2-3-1, 20 yards.

Receiving

Paradise Valley – Boyle 4-73, Blanco 3-18, Villa 1-13, Gonzales 1-3. Cactus Shadows – Aspiras 5-171, Dafnis 4-82, Peck 3-44, Spielman 2-33, Wiatrolik 2-21, Conley 1-17, Cashin 1-17, Plocher 1-3.

Sound Off

Cactus Shadows QB Donivan Dixon on his comfort level of having 3+ years of experience: “My dad and I have been at this for four years. He’s instilled that confidence in me since I was young. I know every single play and every read. It’s just having the confidence and building it every single day throughout practice.”

Paradise Valley head coach Greg Davis: “We’re not at that caliber yet. We’ve got a lot of young guys playing football for the first time and not a lot of guys on our sideline (PV had 27 players dressed out). They hit us in the mouth and we didn’t respond very well.”

Cactus Shadows WR Dillon Aspiras on his relationship with Dixon: “This is my third year of playing with him, so the connection has only gotten stronger since then. We work a lot off season and off camera. We just continue to keep pushing that and get better together.”

Cactus Shadows head coach Chris Dixon on the play of his son, Donivan: “He’s trying to improve every week with his reads. The first two games, he was rushing some things. Tonight, he really calmed down and made the reads he was supposed to make.”

Next Week

Region play begins for both teams. Paradise Valley (3-2) will have a short week as it travels to McClintock (1-4) on Thursday to start its 5A Central Valley schedule. The Chargers have dropped four straight games, including a 62-3 setback to ranked Horizon on Thursday.

Cactus Shadows (3-2) begins 5A Northeast Valley play on the road in Scottsdale against Desert Mountain (4-1). Like CSHS, the Wolves have had three consecutive blowout victories (by a total of 146-16). The latest of those was Friday night at Kellis. DMHS recorded its second shutout of the season with a 53-0 blanking of the Cougars. The Falcons will need to play more disciplined football (they had 12 penalties for 108 yards) if they are to extend their streak to four.