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No. 32
CHAMPIONSHIP: Class 4A
SCORE: Marana Mountain View 63, Sahuaro 32
DATE: December 10, 1993
SITE: Arizona Stadium (attendance of 8,051)
GAME SUMMARY: Marana Mountain View ended its perfect season at 14-0 — achieving the only football state championship in the school’s history — while dominating a turnover-plagued Sahuaro (9-3-2) team from the start behind brothers Gabe and Kevin Schmidtke.
Kevin Schmidtke, a running back who went on to play at Arizona from 1994-97, had five touchdowns, a 38-yard field goal and five extra-points to tally 38 points. He finished with 115 yards with four touchdowns on 19 carries.
Gabe Schmidtke, Mountain View’s quarterback, engineered an offense that compiled 458 yards in total offense. Gabe completed five of his six attempts for 175 yards with three touchdowns.
Mountain View took advantage of three turnovers in the first half to build a 36-20 halftime lead. The Cougars lost two fumbles on snaps from center in the shotgun formation, including on the second play of the game, and they were victimized by an interception.
The Mountain Lions had a miscue of their own, fumbling a kickoff return, allowing Sahuaro to tie the game at 14 on a 45-yard pass from Steve Horton to Omar Bacon with 33 seconds into the second quarter.
Sahuaro fumbled at its 21-yard line on the next possession, leading to Gabe Schmidtke’s 19-yard scamper and Kevin Schmidtke’s 2-yard touchdown run to give Mountain View a 20-14 lead with 6:40 left in the second quarter.
Mountain View took advantage of turnovers and good field position to pull away on the next two possessions of the second quarter.
Kevin Schmidtke scored on a 17-yard touchdown run and Gabe Schmidtke followed that with a 33-yard run that set up his 38-yard scoring strike to John Harschberger with a touchdown pass. Mountain View led 33-14 with 3:12 left in the half.
After Sahuaro cut the lead to 33-20 with 2:27 remaining in the half on Horton’s 45-yard touchdown pass to Greg Clark, Kevin Schmidtke added a 38-yard field goal with 10 seconds left to give the Mountain Lions a 36-20 lead at halftime.
Wayne Jone’s team scored on its first possession of the second half, a 73-yard drive in five plays, to build the lead to 43-20. The knockout was a 63-yard, three-play possession that took only 1:07 off the clock and built the lead to 50-20 with 7:01 left in the third quarter.
The championship occurred in the sixth year of varsity football at the school with Jones the head coach from the start. He retired in 2006 with a career record of 134-76. The school’s football facility is called Wayne Jones Field.
Jones, from Carrollton, Pa., was a quarterback at Purdue before he embarked on a coaching career that included becoming an assistant coach under Tony Mason at Cincinnati. He then joined Mason’s staff at Arizona from 1977-79.
THEY SAID IT: “I knew we would not be stopped. We are like a machine. The other stuff doesn’t matter. This is it.” — Kevin Schmidtke told the Arizona Daily Star after the victory.
DID YOU KNOW: The Schmidtkes both have gone on to become well-established dentists, primarily in cosmetic dentistry, in the Tucson area.
BOX SCORE (printed in Arizona Daily Star):
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