Two of Tucson’s youngest and brightest interior linemen on both sides of the ball met on the gridiron Friday night at Salpointe Catholic High School.
It was a meeting of best friends as Salpointe Catholic’s Luis Cordova matched up with Canyon del Oro’s Sa’Kylee Woodward. Both played together on the TYF 14U All-Star team two seasons ago.
While they were on opposite sides of the ball tonight, in a few years, they could one day be sharing the same blue and red jerseys.
Both of them have caught the eye of new Arizona football head coach Jedd Fisch, and they both have offers from the Wildcats as only sophomores.
It was a big night for the Lancers offense, accounting for 56 points and you can say they were the model of consistency throughout the game: they scored exactly 14 points each quarter.
The Lancer passing attack was led by senior quarterback Treyson Bourguet, who went 12-16 for 175 yards and four touchdowns. Two of those were to senior Bryce Robinson.
Salpointe’s ground attack, behind Cordova and co., were also solid with the backfield combining for 243 yards on the ground. Another senior, Anthony Wilhite, led the team with two rushing touchdowns.
Salpointe head coach Eric Rogers preached his seniors’ efforts. Rogers is in his second year as the head coach of Salpointe, and with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting most of the season last year, this was his first chance to be in front of his home crowd on a Friday night.
“We got a group of seniors that want it, they’ve worked four-years for this opportunity,” said Rogers.
Another Lancer with an Arizona offer, #95 defensive end Elijah Rushing, made his mark on the game as well, with 4.5 tackles, two tackles for loss, and a sack.
Cordova, while not match upped against his long-time friend, helped lead the way for the Lancer offense and protect the blindsid of Bourguet, who was effective all-night long.
Salpointe is in a rare circumstance of having a bye week directly after their first game.
Cordova talked about what the team will need to do to stay focused.
“We gotta stay determined and focused, we got lifting and practice, we still have to be on our grind and we are just going to be prepared for the next game,” he said.
Woodward, who was playing both sides of the ball for CDO, talked about what the team can take from this early season loss.
“It was a tough loss but one thing I can say is ‘the 12-hour-rule’, we can learn from it, you know I was frustrated but you know as a leader I got to learn to channel that and use that aggression to take it out on the field.”
When asked whether there was any playful trash talk leading up to the game this week, the two were both quick to dismiss that, saying that is “all love” between the two and that “family” off the field.
“Surprisingly there was no trash talking, we wished each other good luck,” Cordova said with a laugh.
“There was no reason to, Luis does his thing, I do mine,” Woodward said.
Woodward and the Dorados square off next with Apache Junction next Friday.
As mentioned before, Cordova and the Lancers will have a bye week before traveling to Cienega on September 16th.
FOLLOW @HMORENONEWS ON TWITTER!
ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com writing intern Harrison Moreno is a southern Arizona native who has watched Wildcat athletics since he was young kid. He recently is a graduate of The University of Arizona’s School of Journalism, with a focus in broadcast and audio journalism.
Recommended for you
