Senior Night for No. 15 Salpointe Catholic Lancers (6-3) ended with a big win over No. 23 Mesa Mountain View Toros (2-7) in a 6A East Valley matchup.
On a chilly Friday night, with temperatures hovering around 45 degrees at game time, Salpointe wasn’t feeling the chill. The Lancers brought the heat.
In the first quarter, the Lancers marched down the field scoring when senior running back Dailan Goodman pushed the ball over the goal line. Salpointe bobbled the snap on the extra-point try.
Salpointe led 6-0 with 38 seconds left in the first quarter.
Lancers senior kicker Carson Fiske hit a field goal adding to the Salpointe lead. Fiske was 2-2 on field goals and 2-3 on extra-points. His only miss was the bobbled snap.
Salpointe coach Eric Rogers spoke highly of his kicker.
“Carson is money man,” Rogers said. “That guy is automatic. We are very very fortunate and lucky to have him. We are going to need him down the stretch. There’s no doubt about it.”
Senior quarterback Fredo Sotelo later hit junior wide receiver Cordell Killingsworth, who made an athletic catch getting the Lancers down the Toro 1.
Sotelo put another six points up for the Lancers on a quarterback keeper.
Toward the end of the half, Salpointe’s defense, which dominated all night, forced Mesa Mountain View to punt.
With 12 seconds left in the first half, Sotelo hit junior wide receiver Abel Alarcon in the corner of the end zone.
The Lancers led 23-0 at the half.
In the second half, Fiske made another field goal and the Lancers defense held the Toros scoreless.
“Really, really proud of our defense and the way they played all night,” Rogers said when asked about the play of his defense.
Leading 26-0 with a little over a minute left in the game, the Lancers went into victory formation.
Rogers knew the Toros would be a tough battle.
On his team’s opponent and getting prepared for the game: “Coach (Joe) Germaine does a phenomenal job. Very well-coached, very disciplined football team. Obviously, they’ve had their adversity, their bumps in the road. They lost their stud quarterback. But we knew coming in they were going to come down here and give us everything they had. It was going to be a heck of a fight. We prepared our butts off all week for it.”
Rogers continued: “In the first half, offensively was just exactly what we were looking for. We made great decisions with the football from our quarterback play. Everything we want to do. That’s the championship football we’ve got to play from here on out if we want to have a chance. I was really, really proud.”
The Lancers’ running game was successful all night, helping Salpointe dominate time of possession.
Sotelo after the game: “We had set a tone for the game early. I think we did that very well today. We’re in regional play right now so we know we gotta win. We knew what we had to do and I think we showed that tonight.”
Sotelo when asked about Mesa Mountain View’s record and preparing for the Toros: “Honestly, I didn’t think their record showed how good of a team they really are. They played powerhouses like Chandler, Liberty and all of them. We knew they were a good team. We knew what we had to do and we didn’t look at their record. We just looked at the team in front of us.”
With their 26-0 win over Mesa Mountain View, Salpointe improves to 2-1 in the 6A East Valley region.
Salpointe, which played the last three games at home, resulting in three wins, will head to Queen Creek on Thursday to conclude the regular season. The game starts at 7 pm.
Game Extras:
*Salpointe sophomore wide receiver Rowan Sparks plays on junior varsity and varsity. Sparks had a phenomenal catch in the second half. He is 6-foot-4 and has every quality you want to see in a wide receiver.
* This was a cold one to cover, at least for us Arizona peeps. My thoughts after the game:
“Now that I’m in the car and my fingers are finally defrosting… want to say, my first @SCLancerNation game was fun to cover … but not having any hot chocolate in the concessions when it’s 45 degrees out was a crime against humanity!” 😂
Good game Lancers!
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