Tag: saguaro football

2 California and Arizona teams faced off and the result skewed heavily to Cali

Sierra Canyon and Centennial high schools took down Saguaro and Liberty, respectively, the night before USC traveled to Tempe to play ASU.

Ahead of this weekend’s college football game between the University of Southern California and Arizona State University, two of the top California high school teams faced off against two of the top Arizona teams. In what may be a precursor to the result of USC vs. ASU this weekend, Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth, Calif.) and Centennial (Corona, Calif.) took down Saguaro (Scottsdale, Ariz.) and Liberty (Peoria, Ariz.), respectively.

We’ll start with Sierra Canyon vs. Saguaro because this game was brutal. Saguaro is a historically dominant team that once again reached the Open Division championship last year, but with the departure of head coach Jason Mohns at the end of last season, there has been some transition. Nevertheless, between the classes of 2024 and 2025, there are seven three-star players on the Sabercats, who entered the evening 3-1.

No matter. It was a 63-6 beat-down in which the Trailblazers took a 28-0 lead in the first quarter and continued racking up points through the third quarter. Wyatt Becker, ranked a three-star QB by 247Sports and four-star on the 247 Composite Ranking, had twice as many total touchdowns (8) as he did incompletions (4) as he finished the game 18-22 with 364 yards, seven passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown, according to Dan Lovi of the Los Angeles Daily News.

According to ArizonaVarsity, Saguaro’s worst loss previously had been 65-0 in 2011. Friday’s game comes close.

Across Los Angeles County, past Anaheim, and into Corona, No. 17 Liberty was putting up a much better fight against Centennial. The Lions took a 35-21 lead over Centennial at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and it looked like they may hold on to beat what is widely regarded as a top-3 team in California.

Arizona’s optimism quickly turned as Centennial drove down the field in less than two minutes, with four-star QB Husan Longstreet connecting on a deep pass to three-star receiver Cory Butler, and then Cornell Hatcher ran in a 17-yard touchdown.

Hatcher has been playing absolutely out of his mind this month. Against No. 2 Bishop Gorman two weeks ago, he rushed for 233 yards and four touchdowns. This week, he one-upped himself and practically dragged Centennial to a win, rushing for 300 yards and four touchdowns, according to MaxPreps.

He scored that 17-yard TD to cut the deficit to a single touchdown. He punched in a one-yard touchdown that cut Liberty’s lead to one point after a missed PAT. And then he punched home the game-winning 13-yard run that preceded a two-point conversion, leading the way for 21 Centennial points in the fourth quarter alone.

With his rushing and tough fourth-quarter defense that caught an interception midway through the fourth and then iced it at the end, the Huskies eked out the victory and improved to 3-2, with their two losses coming against top-2 teams in the Super 25. Liberty’s loss is its first of the season.

As for USC and ASU, who will meet in Tempe on Saturday night? There’s definitely a chance it’ll look more like the Saguaro-Sierra Canyon game than that of Liberty-Centennial. Southern California will look to go 3-for-3 this weekend.

More:

61-yard field goal! Keelen Anderson sets Wyoming state record

Let’s all appreciate Micah Hudson’s athleticism for a moment

2026 quarterback Marcel Jones transfers to Saguaro, ineligible for rest of season

Marcel Jones, a highly touted sophomore quarterback, has transferred from Chaparral to cross-town powerhouse Saguaro.

Marcel Jones entered his sophomore season as one of the more intriguing players in Arizona high school football. According to Burn City Sports, he led Chaparral’s (Scottsdale, Ariz.) freshman team last year to an undefeated season, scoring 40 total touchdowns and completing almost 85% of his passes. He also received at least two Div. I offers during his freshman year. 

The Arizona Republic wrote in a season preview that Jones “might have been the most dynamic player at the freshman level last year when the Firebirds’ freshman team blew out everybody they played. Runs, passes and makes people miss. Expect him to have a monster sophomore season on the varsity.”

But that sophomore season has come to an end. Jones has transferred from Chaparral High School after four games, moving to cross-town Saguaro High School.

He will not be eligible for the rest of the season, according to the Republic. With the move, he finishes his sophomore season with 687 passing yards at a 55.5% completion rate and 200 rushing yards on 40 attempts.

Why the sudden change?

Jones’ father, Cedric, told the Arizona Republic that the move was related to his belief that the Chaparral football booster club “isn’t transparent about how its funds are spent” and did not have proper oversight, reporter Richard Obert wrote.

Chaparral principal Joshua Painter told the Republic that Scottsdale Unified School District is “committed to reviewing the complaint and determining whether an investigation is warranted.” Club boost president Casey Porter added that he “does not see any substantiation to that claim.”

There was also speculation that the decision came after the coaching staff opened up a competition for the starting quarterback job this week, which Cedric Jones strongly rejected as the rationale for the move.

Read the Republic article here for a comprehensive overview of the news.

Marcel Jones’ transfer is the latest change for a team that has undergone a transformation over the last year. Chaparral was highlighted in Sports Illustrated’s September 2022 feature about Arizona’s open enrollment policy and its effect on the state’s high school football scene, and the opening paragraph highlighted the school’s desire to take down the historically dominant Saguaro program.

However, over the last several months, there have been a variety of departures in the program, including five members of the freshman team that moved to Mountain Pointe (Ahwatukee, Ariz.) and the resignation of head coach Brent Barnes, who accepted a job to coach Yukon High School in Oklahoma, a state in which he had previously lived and coached.

Jones’ departure removes what had been a promising piece of Chaparral’s future. His dominant freshman season led him to be considered the top quarterback in Arizona’s class of 2026, and in January, he picked up offers from Arizona State University and UNLV.

Now, he is off to Saguaro, where he will learn under first-year head coach Zak Hill, who has previously served roles as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at ASU and Boise State.

The high school football world will wait until his junior year to see the progress made.

No. 21 Chandler engineers comeback in final 24 seconds to reach 6th-straight title game

Chandler High School football reached its sixth championship game in a row with a big fourth-quarter comeback. The Wolves will play Saguaro.

No. 21 Chandler (Ariz.) High School’s reign at the top was in peril. After committing six turnovers in the semifinals game against Liberty (Peoria, Ariz.), the Wolves trailed by eight points with 24 seconds to play in the game and received the ball at the 30 yard line.

They haven’t won five straight championships for nothing. Three-star quarterback Blaine Hipa completed a 26-yard pass to Iowa State commit Quaron Adams, and then Anyale Velazquez scored a touchdown with two seconds remaining on the clock. On the 2-point conversion, Hipa faked a pitch and then kept it himself to tie the game at 21.

Cronkite News reporter Evan Oscherwitz tweeted a video of the touchdown pass:

In overtime, Princeton commit Nason Coleman scored a game-winning touchdown to give Chandler the 27-21 victory.

It took overcoming six turnovers and a 21-7 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but the Wolves have reached their sixth consecutive title game. They will play against Saguaro (Scottsdale, Ariz.), who took down No. 10 Hamilton (Chandler, Ariz.) on Saturday night.

Saguaro is a historically dominant football school in its own right, winning the 5A division six times in a row from 2013-18. When the Open Division playoffs were created in 2019, the Sabercats had their first chance to play for the championship against 6A teams like Chandler.

So far this season, they have done what they needed to prove they’re the best in the state regardless of division, even taking down the only team to beat Chandler so far this year. While the Wolves won’t be able to directly avenge that loss to Hamilton, they’ll have a chance to take down Saguaro for another title. The Sabercats will look to be the second team to beat Chandler this season.

But as the Wolves have shown multiple times during their years of dominance, no lead is completely safe. Even 24 seconds is too many for this group.

Chandler starts fast, halts Saguaro’s late rally for Arizona’s first Open Division football championship

Dae Dae Hunter started the game with a 71-yard touchdown to help Chandler win the first Arizona Open Division title over Saguaro.

Dae Dae Hunter made a huge opening statement on Saturday night

On the first play of the first Open Division state football championship game, the senior tailback tore off a 71-yard run, and Chandler was on its way to a 42-35 victory over shell-shocked Scottsdale Saguaro at Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium.

“That was a statement, ‘We’re here for business,’ ” first-year Chandler head coach Rick Garretson said.

This was Chandler’s fourth consecutive state championship and fifth in six years. The others came in 6A, before the Arizona Interscholastic Association opened it up with an eight-team Open for the top schools among the big conferences (6A through 4A).

[lawrence-auto-related count=2 category=26178588]

After all of the big plays Chandler made on both sides of the ball, the Wolves made a resounding statement that nobody can touch them this season, not even a team that came in with a 57-game winning streak against in-state competition.

In the end, Chandler had to put together an 80-yard drive that consumed seven minutes off the clock to take a 42-28 lead, then overcome one more Saguaro scoring drive, led by quarterback Tyler Beverett.

Chandler led by as much as 28-7 early in the second half, before Saguaro settled down in the rain and ended up making a memorable first Open.

“Any time you play a championship caliber team like Saguaro, they’re going to make runs,” Chandler coach Rick Garretson said. “And they did. And we answered. It was almost like the same thing that happened last year against Perry. They came out in the second half and scored. And we came back and scored.

“We turned things back around,” Garretson said. “We had a great drive at the end of the game, seven minutes, taking the clock down, (run game coordinator) Chris Chick doing his magic in the run game.”

Most of Saguaro’s wins were strung together against 4A teams, but it did beat Tucson Salpointe for the past two 4A titles fairly easily. Salpointe gave Chandler a greater challenge in the semifinals, losing 24-16.

But Chandler had Hunter for only one play in that game. He had injured his ankle in a quarterfinal rout of Chaparral. Garretson was trying to keep Hunter rested for the Open final. Hunter talked his way onto the field for one play when Chandler’s offense was sputtering to begin the game against Salpointe.

Read the rest of the article at the Arizona Republic.

Saguaro completes comeback over Hamilton in Open Division semifinal thriller

Saguaro completed a comeback against Hamilton High School with second half defense and timely offense.

The Saguaro hard-nosed defense and timely offensive plays in the second half beat Hamilton, 20-16, at the AIA Open Division semifinal round at Scottsdale Coronado on Saturday.

The seventh seed Hamilton (9-3) and third seed Saguaro (11-1) entered their matchup respectively averaging near 41 and 50 points per game this season.

Saguaro uncharacteristically didn’t score a single touchdown through the first half and posted two good field goals to enter halftime with a 16-6 score.

[lawrence-related id=101410912,101410718]

The Huskies led Saguaro through the 2:08 minute mark of the third quarter.

Hamilton had the first touchdown of the contest when senior running back Gabriel Armenta caught a 54-yard TD pass from QB Nick Arvay at the 4:41 minute mark in the first quarter and missed the extra point to go up 6-0.

The second TD by Hamilton was scored on a 13-yd pass with 4:11 left in the second quarter.

The Sabercats had a slow start as well as their QB Tyler Beverett who went 6-of-13 on his completions in the first half.

Saguaro junior wide receiver Denzel Burke kept the Sabercats close by catching two long balls for 38 and 54 yards each to put them in field goal range.

They frequently handed the ball to its best player and leading rusher, senior running back/cornerback Kelee Ringo (11 carries, 98 yards, 3 tackles, fumble).

The dynamic Ringo was contained by the Hamilton defense in the first half, only averaging five yards per carry compared to his season average of 16.5 in that category.

Hamilton blocked Saguaro’s punt from its own 45-yard line and rolled to the Saguaro 19 with under a minute left in the first quarter.

When they couldn’t score in the red zone, Hamilton settled for a 28-yard field goal and went up 9-0 to close the first quarter.

Armenta continued being the biggest producer on the ground for Hamilton and its starting QB Nick Arvay went 10-of-17 on his passes for 143 yards before he broke his collarbone and was sidelined halfway through the third quarter.

Saguaro senior RB David Soboyejo and senior WR Brandt Goodwin helped the Sabercats field position going a combined 243 all-purpose yards through the second half.

Hamilton didn’t score for the entire second half, largely because of its top pass rushers Tristan Monday and Damian Sellers who had 8 sacks and 11 tackles total for 35 yards lost between them.

The first TD for Saguaro was made by junior backup ATH Xander Werner on a 35-yd catch at the 2:08 minute mark in the third quarter to decrease the lead to 16-13.

At the 7:34 minute mark, Saguaro senior tight end/linebacker Will Shaffer moved from the the defense to the offense and heroically rushed for a 41-yard TD and the Sabercats took the lead 20-16.

There were multiple defensive plays by which the game’s momentum shifted in both teams favor with just two minutes remaining.

Read the rest of the story at the Arizona Republic.