2022 Southern Arizona high school football schedules — Salpointe Catholic Lancers

6A

SALPOINTE CATHOLIC LANCERS

2021 record: 11-3 (lost in 5A state championship game to Scottsdale Horizon)

• Salpointe has moved from 5A to 6A and the Lancers will compete this fall in the East Valley Region with four Phoenix-area schools — Mesa Mountain View, Queen Creek, Red Mountain and Williams Field, all of which advanced to the 6A state playoffs last year.
• Advancing to the 6A state playoffs in 2022 will not be an easy task for Salpointe, but the Lancers will not be void of power-ranking points possibilities to boost their chance. The schedule for the Lancers includes eight opponents that advanced to the state playoffs last year, and the two that didn’t — Mica Mountain and Tolleson — came close. The Thunderbolts, under legendary coach Pat Nugent, went 3-3 in their first year of varsity football and were ranked one spot out of making the 4A state playoffs. Tolleson won its last seven games to finish 7-3.
• Eric Rogers, who will be in his third year as head coach, faces a tough game in the season opener Sept. 2 — traveling to Scottsdale Chaparral, which lost in the 6A state championship game last season.
• The Lancers then play Sept. 9 at Anthem Boulder Creek, a 6A team that was 5-6 last year but lost in the first round of the 6A state playoffs at Williams Field, which later advanced to the semifinals, where the Black Hawks lost to Chaparral.
• On Sept. 16, the Lancers will host a Basha team that went 10-0 before losing in a 6A first-round playoff game against Liberty.
• The Lancers will match up against Vail schools Mica Mountain and Cienega. They host Mica Mountain, which will be in its first full season of varsity football at the 4A level, on Oct. 7, and travel to Cienega on Sept. 23.

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator five years ago and is presently a special education teacher at Gallego Fine Arts Intermediate in the Sunnyside Unified School District.