Deer Valley’s football team warmed to its task on a chilly Friday night, beating crosstown rival Antioch, 42-14, to notch their ninth straight victory and bring them one win away from a perfect regular season.

Antioch, which was celebrating senior night, began the game looking like they could pull off an upset. The Panthers marched 55 yards in nine plays on their opening drive, finishing with a 20-yard touchdown strike from Billy Cloninger to Nick Lucero. Their always reliable female kicker Dallas Butterfield made the score 7-0. But the Antioch joy would not last long.

On the first offensive play for the Wolverines from their own 33, Kristoff Williams floated a pass to a wide open Brandon Williams, who broke a tackle and sprinted to the end zone. Brierly Lindberg, who was perfect on extra point attempts all night, tied the score at 7.

Deer Valley then scored two second quarter touchdowns for a lead they did not relinquish. The first came on a 5-yard plow by Brandon Williams, the second of three touchdowns he would score. The second score came at a potentially big price. Kristoff Williams twisted his ankle on a 1-yard quarterback sneak and was out for the rest of the game.

“He’s a little sore in his ankle,” said Deer Valley Coach Rich Woods. “I’m not sure how he’s going to go. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen, because I haven’t really talked to him. But, I know his ankle is bothering him, he twisted it pretty good.”

Deer Valley had no problem putting the Panthers away in the second half with a competent Mike Behr guiding the offense and Brandon Williams and Damon Collins scoring on long touchdown runs. On another score, Williams actually fumbled the ball before crossing the goal line, but lineman DeOndre Wesley recovered it in the end zone for what is likely the big man’s first TD.

The Panthers were not able to keep up, scoring only one second half touchdown: a 3-yard pass from Cloninger to Shamawn Wright.

“I thought it was a great performance for our guys,” said Woods. “I thought they, for the most part, held their composure. They had that first touchdown. Then we had the touchdown right back and pretty much took over.”

The notable exception to on composure occurred when Sean Combs was ejected from the game because of his two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Woods did not know if the ejection would keep Combs from playing Friday.

Deer Valley (9-0 overall, 4-0 league) hosts Heritage (6-2, 3-1) Friday Nov. 13. A win would give the Wolverines the outright BVAL title. Antioch (4-5, 2-2) will travel to Pittsburg (5-4, 3-1) Saturday afternoon for the Big Little Game.