2023 High School Football

HS FOOTBALL NOTEBOOK: Four Southern Arizona teams in 3A, 4A and 6A semifinals

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Mica Mountain coach Pat Nugent has now taken five teams to at least the semifinal round of the state playoffs (Stephanie van Latum/AllSportsTucson.com)

With Salpointe winning its 6A quarterfinal game over Gilbert Williams Field and Canyon del Oro and Mica Mountain also victorious Friday night, setting up their 4A semifinal game next week at Dorado Stadium, Southern Arizona has four teams still alive deep into the playoffs. No. 4 Sabino plays in the 3A semifinals Saturday night against No. 1 Mohave at Mesa High School at 6 p.m. Just a year ago, it was written in Tucson that people should follow high school soccer more than football because of Southern Arizona’s perceived status of being far below Phoenix-area programs. … The possibility exists that three teams from Tucson can compete for championships in the next week or two. … The only times more than one Tucson team won a title in the same year was in 1975 with Amphi (AAA) and Flowing Wells (AA) and in 1976 with CDO (AA) and Tucson Deaf & Blind (C). …

CDO’s 15-yead coach Dustin Peace has the Dorados at 12-0 after Friday night’s gut-wrenching four-overtime win over AZ College Prep. Peace’s Dorados with Ka’Deem Carey and Blake Martinez went 14-0 en route to a state title in 2009. He can coach two state-champion unbeaten teams, a feat coaches such as Ollie Mayfield and Dennis Bene did not accomplish although they came close. Jeff Scurran coached Sabino to unbeaten championship seasons in 1990 and 1992 and lost three other times in the postseason with the Sabercats after going 10-0 in the regular season. … Mica Mountain’s Pat Nugent has reached the semifinal round of the playoffs for the first time since going that far with Cienega and Jamarye Joiner at quarterback in 2016 and 2017. … As CDO’s coach in 2007, he reached the championship game before losing to Scottsdale Saguaro. The Dorados also advanced to the semifinals under him the following season. Peace replaced Nugent after Nugent left to coach Pima College and Peace led the Dorados to the championship in 2009. … He has come so close to winning it all. This is certainly a year he can earn that elusive title in his 21 years of coach. … He commented after Friday’s 38-17 win over visiting Northwest Christian that offensive line coach Richard Sanchez brought to practice his two championship rings that he earned as Sunnyside’s coach in 2001 and 2003. “He showed the kids what two rings look like, but you know, obviously everybody knows a championship is what we all play for,” Nugent said. …

Nugent’s No. 3-seeded team that’s 11-1 must win at No. 2 CDO in the 4A semifinals to reach the title game against either No. 1 Yuma Catholic or No. 4 Phoenix Arcadia — both unbeaten teams at 12-0. Mica Mountain, CDO, Yuma Catholic and Arcadia are a combined 39-1 with the one loss suffered by Mica Mountain against CDO in a 17-15 thriller last month at Dorado Stadium. … “Bottom line is for us to go and beat CDO,” Nugent said. “Right now, that’s all that matters to me.” … A key piece to that puzzle is the return of linebacker Kason Colbert, who also wants to play at running back down the stretch. Colbert was out for four games because of concussion protocol. He played against Northwest Christian and returned to his menacing ways with bone-jarring tackles, obviously not hesitant coming off injury. He and defensive linemen Jimmy Leon and Jaysen Criswell and fellow linebacker Broden Schmidt are very active and aggressive. Leon batted away two passes by Northwest Christian QB Evan Taransenko while hurrying Tarasenko on Friday. Colbert will get tested during the week. If given the approval, he will also play at running back against CDO on Friday. “It felt really good being back with the boys on the field,” Cobert said. “I did get a little gassed, I could tell, taking the month off, but it felt amazing being back.” …

Tarasenko completed touchdown passes of 80 and 98 yards in the first half, but a concussion suffered early in the third quarter kept him out for the rest of the game. His absence, after Northwest Christian played Mica Mountain to a tie at 17 at halftime, was too much for the sixth-seeded Crusaders (9-3) to overcome. Mica Mountain seized the momentum and pulled away with Tarasenko out. “We were tied when he got hurt (during Northwest Christian’s first offensive series of the second half),” Northwest Christian offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Drew Inness said. “He just got a concussion and couldn’t put him back down. It was tough to see his amazing season end like that. Statistically, it wasn’t even close his numbers compared to everyone else.” Tarasenko suffered the head injury on an attempted tackle while trying to scramble away from pressure from Leon on a play that resulted in an incomplete pass. He completed 7 of 22 pass attempts for 226 yards, 178 of them on the two long touchdown passes. He finished the season eclipsing 3,000 yards passing with 3,021 while completing 184 of 295 (62.4 percent). “We’re super proud of the season he had,” Inness said. “It just sucks to see him go down like that.” Inness and his father David, Northwest Christian’s head coach, departed Mica Mountain’s campus quickly after the game in order to drive straight to the airport in Phoenix for a flight to see his brother Dustin Inness, a long snapper with Abilene Christian, play at Texas A&M on Saturday at 11 a.m. (10 a.m. in Phoenix). … It looked like it might be a pleasant drive to the airport following the game after Northwest Christian opened the scoring with an 80-yard touchdown pass from Tarasenko to Gunnar Penzkover on the Crusaders’ very first offensive play. Northwest Christian regained the lead, 14-7, on Tarasenko’s 98-yard touchdown pass to Marshall Gillette with 8:25 left in the first half. The Crusaders were pinned deep after a 64-yard punt by Riley Carson was downed at the Northwest Christian 1. After a 1-yard completion to Cole Martin, Tarasenko connected with Gillette for the 98-yard score. …

The teams traded field goals before the half ended tied at 17. After Tarasenko was knocked out of the game, sophomore Laki Wallwork, who played much of the season at the junior varsity level, replaced him. It’s a very tall order for a young QB like that to face Mica Mountain’s ultra-aggressive defense. … Northwest Christian seemed deflated after its captain left for the last time in his high school career. On Mica Mountain’s ensuing possession following Tarasenko’s exit, Thunderbolt running back Conner Hangartner’s 40-yard touchdown run with 9:30 left gave his team a 24-17 lead. Northwest Christian then drove to the Mica Mountain 17 but Devin Hayward intercepted a pass at the 1-yard line to preserve the Thunderbolts’ lead. Hayward had two interceptions in the end zone in last week’s 31-24 victory over Snowflake in the first round. “Unfortunately for them, their quarterback got hurt and obviously that’s a heck of a football player,” Nugent said. “But you know what? We get after kids. We’ve got an unbelievable D-line and defense. We gave up two really big plays. That’s all they had. “We told the kids at half that we dominated, we did everything that we thought we can do. We just came out and had a great second half. Our offense started moving the ball a little bit.” …

After Hayward’s interception, Mica Mountain drove 86 yards on six plays, culminating with a 19-yard touchdown pass from Jayden Thoreson to Jonah Garcia – one of three touchdown connections between Thoreson and Garcia. Mica Mountain led 31-17 with 4:02 left in the third quarter. Northwest Christian then had consecutive three-and-out possessions. A 60-yard scoring strike from Thoreson to Garcia — the last 18 yards of which Garcia tussled with and dragged a defender to the end zone — put the Thunderbolts ahead 38-17 with 9:17 left. Northwestern Christian was held to 85 yards rushing with Ben Leuders handling a bulk of the carries, finishing with 87 yards on 19 rushes. Tarasenko and Wallwork struggled against Mica Mountain’s defense. The Northwest Christian quarterbacks combined to complete 11 passes out of 34 attempts for 295 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions. … Hangartner finished with 134 yards on 14 carries with two touchdowns for his second consecutive 100-yard game in the playoffs after being a backup to Colbert in the backfield most of the regular season. Thoreson was impressive, completing 13 of 24 pass attempts for 257 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. At one point, he completed nine consecutive passes. Garcia finished with six catches for 126 yards and the three touchdowns. … Mica Mountain cornerback Will White had two of the Thunderbolts’ four interceptions, showing again that the Thunderbolts front seven (pressure) and secondary (coverage) feed off each other very well. …

Salpointe legendary running back Bijan Robinson, in his rookie season with the Atlanta Falcons, took advantage of his week off this week by visiting Tucson and attending Salpointe’s win over Williams Field at Ed Doherty Stadium. Instead of spending his whole time off at a vacation destination, he returned home and to his roots. That once again indicates the values that his grandfather Cleo, a former Pac-12 referee, has instilled in him. Robinson spent time with kids near the sidelines and took many pictures with friends and some of his fans. He smiled through it all and took it in and seemed to embrace it instead of allowing his fame and fortune in the NFL get to his head. Bijan Robinson is as wholesome and genuine as it gets all because of how his grandparents raised him. … Leaving you this: What about a doubleheader at Arizona Stadium next Friday with CDO playing Mica Mountain in the 4A semifinals and Salpointe facing longtime rival Scottsdale Saguaro in the 6A semifinals? School is out the day after Thanksgiving. Schedule the games at something like 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. I can dream, can’t I? That actually should not be a dream. It should be a reality. …

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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 in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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