
No. 10 Cienega plays at No. 11 Marana on Friday at 7 p.m. and a featured element of the anticipated 5A Southern matchup are junior quarterbacks Elijah Joplin of Marana and Brayden Cherry of Cienega — two of the top passers in Southern Arizona. Joplin tops all local quarterbacks with 2,133 passing yards while completing 148 of 212 passes (.698) with 27 touchdowns and three interceptions. Cherry has completed 88 of 152 passes (.579) for 1,334 yards with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions.
2021 Southern Arizona High School Passing Leaders
The top 2021 passers in Southern Arizona. Stats compiled from MaxPreps provided by coaches and schools. *Denotes Class 1A (8-man football) player.School | Player | Yr | Yds | Cmp | Att | Pct | TD | Int | GP |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Marana | Elijah Joplin | Jr | 2,658 | 194 | 279 | .695 | 30 | 7 | 10 |
*St. David | Ryan Gooding | Jr | 2,468 | 148 | 232 | .638 | 34 | 4 | 12 |
Sabino | Cameron Hackworth | So | 2,174 | 147 | 204 | .721 | 26 | 4 | 11 |
Salpointe | Treyson Bourguet | Sr | 2,110 | 156 | 257 | .607 | 30 | 3 | 14 |
Pusch Ridge | Ryan Fontaine | Sr | 1,967 | 153 | 219 | .699 | 19 | 4 | 11 |
CDO | Caden Dawes | Jr | 1,807 | 91 | 171 | .532 | 18 | 3 | 12 |
Cienega | Brayden Cherry | Jr | 1,785 | 126 | 210 | .600 | 16 | 7 | 11 |
Ironwood Ridge | Tyler Haynie | Sr | 1,670 | 102 | 176 | .580 | 17 | 6 | 11 |
Empire | Miles Kinney | Sr | 1,585 | 102 | 176 | .580 | 18 | 13 | 11 |
*San Manuel | Nicolas Velasquez | So | 1,583 | 72 | 126 | .571 | 18 | 4 | 8 |
Walden Grove | Jason Stevens | Sr | 1,574 | 110 | 197 | .558 | 16 | 8 | 10 |
Mountain View | William Howell | So | 1,389 | 101 | 178 | .567 | 12 | 6 | 10 |
Catalina Foothills | Connor Smith | Sr | 1,263 | 90 | 156 | .573 | 14 | 8 | 10 |
Sunnyside | Deion Conde | Jr | 1,220 | 103 | 187 | .551 | 18 | 6 | 9 |
Pueblo | Diego Ramirez | Jr | 1,202 | 105 | 204 | .515 | 8 | 5 | 7 |
Desert View | Oscar Barraza | Sr | 1,028 | 43 | 83 | .518 | 13 | 4 | 10 |






