Week 5 Arizona high school football roundup: Saguaro offense rolls, Arcadia storms back for win

(This will be updated as additional game stories are complete)

Saguaro offense takes off in win over O'Connor

By Lucas Gordon

After only scoring 20 combined points in its first two games, Saguaro only needed three quarters to double that total Friday night.

The Sabercats took down a red-hot Sandra Day O'Connor by a score of 47-3. O'Connor came into the game coming off of an upset win over Red Mountain.

Key plays

Saguaro's offense was clicking from the first drive of the game. Senior quarterback Devon Dampier started the game with a 65-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Dajon Hinton.

The following play Dampier aired it out for a 10-yard touchdown to sophomore Owen Pimbert.

Dampier kept on making plays in the first half by throwing for three additional touchdowns including a second to Hinton.

The air was not the only way Dampier showed off his skills. Early in the second quarter, the quarterback used his feet scrambling for a 15-yard touchdown.

After only playing three quarters, Dampier finished the game accounting for five total touchdowns and 243 yards in the air. Dampier also finished with 81 rushing yards.

By halftime the game was already out of reach with a score of 27-3.

Key players

Dampier clearly was the key Friday, but Saguaro starting running back Jaedon Matthews accounted for 79 rushing yards, including a 46 yard touchdown to open up the second half.

Despite not forcing a turnover and only sacking the opposing quarterback once, Saguaro's defense continued their solid season so far.

O'Connor's starting quarterback Cooper King did not complete a pass in the entire second half. Saguaro's defense also held O'Connor's offense to less than 200 yards for the entire game.

Key quotes

Although he played his best game of the season, Dampier credits his teammates with assisting his performance.

"It starts off with the O-line. I barely had any pressure this game. Just being to trust them and being able to trust who's around me helped a lot. We have one of the best receiving corps probably in the nation so it was easy for them to get open. It made my job easy."

Head coach Jason Mohns was glad to see his team get on track ahead of a tough stretch.

"We felt like we needed our swagger back. It was like Austin Powers losing his mojo. You knew it was there you just had to find it. It felt like we found our mojo. Its special."

Up next

Saguaro (2-1) visits Chandler (3-0)  next Friday at 7 p.m. in  a rematch of last year's Open Division Championship, won by Saguaro. O'Connor (2-1) visits Cesar Chavez (2-1).

Arcadia rallies to defeat Coconino

By Howard Schlossberg

Quintyn Isabell couldn't be stopped and Thomas Guerrero had the pick that was the play of the game as Arcadia (2-0) rallied from a 21-0 deficit for a 27-21 win Friday night at home over Coconino (1-1).

Trailing 21-0 at the half, Isabell ignited the Titans with a 90-yard bolt, breaking tackles and staggering to stay inbounds as he put Arcadia on the board at last to open the 3rd quarter.

Arcadia had struggled on both sides of the ball throughout the first half, but came out on fire to start the third quarter.

Key plays

After Isabell lit the spark, the two teams both did a180 after halftime.

After a botched punt snap, Arcadia got field position and made it pay off with a Braylen Rooney-to-Luke Mellen 4-yard TD pass and it was 21-14.

After a fumble recovery that cost Coconino field position, Arcadia scored again, this time on an Isabell 1-yard plunge to cap a 53-yard drive, aided by two penalties.

Enter Guerrero. The linebacker sniffed out a flanker screen, picked it and and returned it to the Coconino 5. From there, Rooney's perfectly placed ball into the back left corner was hauled in by Alex Alba.

Comeback complete.

It didn't seem likely though after Enoch Wilson hit 6 of 8 passes in the first half, one for a TD to Pierson Watson, and thr Panthers got a 48-yard TD dart from Quinn Mickelson in building a 21-0 halftime lead over an Arcadia team that could only muster 111 yards in total offense.

Plus, Arcadia looked clumsy as Bridger French blocked a punt after an errant snap and Noble Young-Blackgoat fell on it.in the end zone for a 14-0 lead.

Key stats

After knocking it out of the park in the first half, Coconino could only gain 38 yards in total offense in the second half against an Arcadia defense that found itself.

Meanwhile, Rooney was going 7 of 14 for 92 yards and 2 TDs in the second half. And Isabell, well, he put up 90 yards of electricity, all in one play.

The game was actually a dead heat in total offense, 245 for Coconino and 238 for Arcadia.

Key quotes

Head coach Ray Brown said Isabell "is so determined. Holy cow!"

"We had kids who stepped up," he said of the overall effort. "We played some football."

Up next

Arcadia hosts Camelback next Friday and Coconino entertains Poston Butte.

Casa Grande outlasts Central, remains undefeated

By Anthony Perez

Casa Grande’s (3-0) faced arguably its biggest test since joining the 5A Conference this season Friday night at Phoenix Central. The Cougars bent but did not break as it used a big third quarter to defeat the Bobcats (2-1), 40-30, and remain undefeated on the young season.

Standout performers

Casa Grande’s sophomore quarterback Eltorna Gant was the spark plug for his team. He led off Casa Grande’s big third quarter with a 21-yard rushing touchdown to give Casa Grande the lead for the first time on the night with 7:15 left in the period.

Gant helped put the game out of reach when he found Nathan Long in the end zone early in the fourth quarter to give Casa Grande a comfortable 34-17 advantage.

Central’s senior quarterback Dominik Bagchi did all he could to keep the host team in the game as he threw for three touchdowns on the night, including one pass to senior Kohnor Brown that he took almost the length of the field that put Central up, 14-0, with 8:21 left in the second quarter.

Highlight of the game

In what was a close 17-14 game in favor of Central coming out of halftime, Casa Grande took over. The Cougars went on a long drive that ate up almost five minutes and resulted in the Gant touchdown run that gave Casa Grande its first lead of the night. The visitors then recovered a Central fumble moments later and it was able to convert that into another drive that ate up clock and resulted in another Casa Grande touchdown and a comfortable 11-point lead.

Key quotes

“I really, really feel that we can compete with anybody. But if we play like the way we do, especially in that fourth quarter where we had about 10 penalties in that last nine minutes, we’ll get blown out. We definitely can’t play with the good teams (like that)” - Casa Grande coach Mark Luna on his team’s penalty issues Friday night.

Up next

Casa Grande will travel to Queen Creek Casteel next Friday, while Central heads a few miles down the road to play North.

Chaparral defense key in win over Mountain Pointe

By Damian Adams

Last week, Chaparral was bullied by Williams Field as the Blackhawks ran the ball up and down the field on the way to a win.

On Friday, Mountain Pointe tried to follow that same blueprint and it worked early, as The Pride relied on the ground game for an opening-drive touchdown.  After that, the Firebirds' defense adjusted and took over, mostly containing Mountain Pointe's offense while its offense found a groove on the way to a 31-13 win in Ahwatukee.

Mountain Pointe was clinging to a 13-7 lead in the second quarter when the game turned around, as Chaparral scored 24 unanswered points.

Player of the Game

Chaparral quarterback, Miles Vandenheuvel threw three touchdown passes and ran for another. The quarterback's mobility and ability to throw on the run gave Mountain Pointe fits.

Quote of the game

"Being physical, last week we couldn't run the ball at all," said Vandenheuvel when asked about this key to this victory. "This week we had over 130 yards."

Up next

Chaparral hosts Desert Mountain next Friday while Mountain Pointe hosts Campo Verde.

Hamilton rallies back from early deficit

By Alex Suarez

Mountain Ridge hosted Hamilton Friday night and got off to a quick start jumping out to an early 14-0 lead. Brendan Anderson and Terrance Hall were able to connect twice in the first quarter. Mountain Ridge would take a quick 21-7 lead over the Huskies. The Huskies, however were able to respond after that and put up 24 unanswered points and take a 10 point lead into the half. The game was controlled by the Huskies the rest of the way, as they were able to cruise to a 52-24 victory over the Lions.

Key plays

Christian Aguilar hauled in an interception in the red zone for Mountain Ridge and return it back to the 48. Two plays later Anderson would hit Hall for their second touchdown of the game on a 39-yard touchdown pass.

Breylon Blount from Hamilton broke off a 62-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to bring the Huskies within one score.

Roch Cholowsky and Jaxson Haynes connected for a 41-yard touchdown pass that would tie the game at 21. Cholowksy would later throw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Tré Spivey for a 35-yard touchdown pass.

Aaron Loughran was able to add to the Huskies lead in the third quarter following a interception that he was able to return for the touchdown.

Standout performers

Roch Cholowsky finished the game with two passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown.

Genesis Smith was a ballhawk for the Huskies defense and finished the game with two interceptions.

Terrance Hall brought in two touchdown passes for Mountain Ridge, a 30-yard touchdown and another for 39-yards

Key quotes

"They (Mountain Ridge) started off hot, they made plays," said Michael Zdebski, head coach of Hamilton. "They came out with a great plan and executed. I think it's really tough mentally. The best thing the kids did is they kept playing. They stuck with each other and fought through it."

"We scored 31 in a row," said Zdebski. "Defense battened down the hatches. That's a great learning moment for the kids on how to keep playing."

Up next

Hamilton (2-1) will host Horizon next Friday, while Mountain Ridge (1-2) goes on the road to play Apollo on Thursday.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Week 5 Arizona high school football roundup