Basha makes stop at the end against Saguaro's Dampier to claim first state football title

With the theme from "Rocky" playing over the PA system at Sun Devil Stadium, one last play left to pull out another miracle, Devon Dampier's pass fell incomplete in the end zone and Chandler Basha celebrated the Open Division state football championship.

As Dampier bent to his knees at the Basha 20, the Bears (12-1) captured the school's first state title with a 28-21 victory in the last game of the Arizona high school football season in 2022.

Going from 4-7 in 2019 in his first season at the helm, to getting to the state final for the first time in school history, Basha went from doormat to champions under coach Chris McDonald.

"I had a vision of how I wanted to run a program," McDonald said. "We live in an age where it's all about self-gratification. It's about attention. But at the end of the day, it's all about relationships. Those kids know I love them. And they want to be valued and they want to be part of a program where they're valued other than on the football field.

"We're very engaged with our kids. I can't say enough about them. They'll run through a wall when they know you care about them."

Senior running back Deshaun Buchanan, who felt the heartbreak of losing an Open championship game to Chandler two years ago when he was at Hamilton, likes to call himself "the closer."

He looked like he was all that when he took off on an 83-yard run, then capped it with a 3-yard score that gave Basha a 28-14 lead with 10:20 left. It was his third touchdown of the game. His second came early in the second quarter for a 14-7 lead, after junior Demond Williams Jr., fired a bullet deep that Bryson Dedmon caught in stride for 46 yards to the 1. It was reminiscent of the passing play the two hooked up for late to beat Chandler 14-7 during the regular season.

"The community came out and supported us all playoffs, so I felt we had to bring one (a gold ball) back to them," said Buchanan, an Idaho commit, who ran for 199 yards on 24 carries.

Buchanan then made some big runs down the stretch, along with clutch plays by Williams, after Dampier had scored on a sweep from the 7 to cut the score to 28-21 with 7:41 to play. Buchanan had runs of 3, 5, 6 and 6 with Williams running for 4 and 2 yards and hitting Javery Marberry for 2 and 9 yards to eat clock and keep Dampier off the field as long as possible.

The biggest play came on fourth-and-1 from Basha's 44 with 5:48 to play. McDonald left his offense on the field and Williams got the yard with a quarterback sneak to keep the drive and the clock moving.

This forced Saguaro to burn all of its time outs. By the time Saguaro got the ball back, there was 2:11 left from its 32. Still enough time for Dampier to work his magic.

Last week, trailing by two touchdowns early in the final quarter to top-seed Peoria Liberty, Dampier rallied the Sabercats (9-4) with two touchdown passes and hit Zaccheus Cooper with a two-point conversion with a minute left to win 43-42.

Dampier moved the Sabercats to the Basha 20 on a 15-yard pass to Dajon Hinton with 22 seconds left. Dampier had JoJo Clark in the back of the end zone. Clark caught it but he was ruled out of the end zone.

Again, if Saguaro had scored, coach Jason Mohns said he was going for two.

But Basha's tough secondary and a defensive front that wouldn't let Dampier escape the pocket clamped down in the end. Three more incompletions and it was over.

"We definitely had this as a goal all season," said Williams, who ended up outdueling Dampier, completing 14 of 18 passes for 174 yards and ran for 55 yards on 17 carries. "Defense wins championships. They've been dominant the whole second half of the year. Them doing that proves it more."

Defensive back Cole Martin, playing more safety than corner in this matchup, had a clutch interception in the second half, turning back Saguaro's offense.

Basha did a great job of making Dampier win with his arm. Dampier ran for 87 yards and two TDs on 21 carries. But he was only 10 of 23 passing for 72 yards and was sacked three times. He wasn't able to make the home run plays to get the Sabercats to break through a defense that shut out Chandler in last week's semifinals.

The only big home run play on special teams when Jaedon Matthews returned a kickoff 94 yards to tie the score at 7 in the first quarter.

On the last play of the game, Basha's secondary was playing deep in a cover 2 with a safety over the middle.

"We just wanted to keep Devon in the pocket," Basha junior defensive back Miles Lockhart said. "Make him throw that thing. Coach called a good game."

Dampier was unconsolable after the game. He embraced his father for a long time in the end zone while Mohns tried to gather his team.

Saguaro won seven state titles under Mohns since he won his first one in 2013. The question remains, "Was this Mohns' last game as coach of Saguaro?'

Mohns bristled after it appeared he was being broached the question. There is speculation that he'll be joining Kenny Dillinghman's staff at Arizona State.

"Don't ask me anything other than about Saguaro," Mohns said. "I'm proud of them. They're just a great group of kids. They've been fun to coach. A lot of personalities, from all over the place. That's what makes it special. The trophies are great. I've got more rings and trophies than what we know what to do with it.

"It's really the journey you go on. You build lifelong relationships."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert atrichard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him on Twitter@azc_obert

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Basha makes stop at the end to claim first football Open state title