The No. 10 Salpointe Catholic Lancers defeated No. 25 Scottsdale Saguaro Sabercats 28-16 on Friday night at Ed Doherty Stadium in their last non-region game of the season.
Salpointe (6-2) will host its last regular-season game Friday against Phoenix Brophy Prep (8-1) in a matchup that will be for the 6A Central title. Both teams are 3-0 in the region. The game is at 7 p.m.
Friday’s game with Saguaro was a rematch of last year’s 6A state semifinal game won by the Sabercats on their way to the championship.
Saguaro underwent a coaching change and former Buena and Pima standout defensive back Darius Kelly, who went on to play at Syracuse, is the new head coach.
Kelly, formerly the head coach at Catalina Foothills, hired many assistants with Southern Arizona ties including former Arizona teammates B.J. Denker (the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach) and Terrence Miller (the wide receivers and tight ends coach).
On a cold night, the Sabercats (1-8) tried to rally late but were subdued by the Lancers, who have won six of their last seven games.
With 7:30 left in the game, the Sabercats were faced with a 4th and 14 at the Lancer 34.
Saguaro quarterback Marcel Jones was able to link up with Aiden Whitaker for a 34-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 21-16 after a successful two-point conversion.
After converting a fourth-and-short play earlier in the drive, Salpointe quarterback Matthew Avelar was able to find a hole down the sideline and ran in a 24-yard touchdown to put the Lancers up 28-16 with 4:21 left.
Safety Richard Archeluta put the game away for Salpointe with an interception with 3:03 left.
From there, the Lancers were able to run out the clock.
“A win is a win, it’s important for our guys and for our program,” Salpointe coach Pat Ryden said. “The way we did it, we are not real pleased. We did not execute very well and we left a lot of points on the field tonight.”
The game was competitive from the start.
Salpointe cornerback Joey Castillo had an interception to thwart Saguaro’s first drive.
Just a couple of plays later, Whitaker, a cornerback on defense, got the ball right back by getting an interception and returning it to the Salpointe 25.
Saguaro was able to get on the board first with Jones finding Whitaker for a red-zone touchdown on third down. Jones scored on a two-point conversion run to put the Sabercats up 8-0 early in the first quarter.
Salpointe was able to respond fast with a less than two-minute drive all the way down the field that was capped off with a 1-yard touchdown run by running back Nathan Spivey to cut the lead to 8-7.
It’s been a standout season for Spivey, who was featured in the 6A Central Top Football Player Performances article on MaxPreps for his performance in Salpointe’s 29-12 win at Mountain Pointe last week.
“Nate is always going to make plays. For somebody (Division I college programs) not to have offered him yet is absolutely ridiculous,” Ryden said.
Saguaro’s offense went cold, going three-and-out in its last three drives of the first quarter.
Salpointe was unable to capitalize, missing a field goal and then fumbling the ball on its two remaining drives in the quarter.
The Lancers were able to get some momentum to end the quarter, blocking Saguaro’s punt. That put Salpointe in great field position to start the second quarter.
Early in the quarter, Rayce Alvarez, who started at quarterback for the Lancers, was able to find Spivey for the 5-yard touchdown to put the Lancers in front 14-8.
On the ensuing Saguaro drive, Spivey, who also plays safety, had an interception in the end zone.
The Sabercats drove the ball into Lancers territory before ultimately turning it over on downs with just under two minutes in the first half.
Salpointe quickly went three and out again and were forced to punt the ball back to Saguaro with just over a minute to go in the half. The punt was muffed by Saguaro and the Lancers recovered at the Sabercat 35.
On the next play, running back Richard Rivera found a lane down the sideline and ran it in for a 35-yard touchdown to put Salpointe up 21-8. This score would hold until halftime after Salpointe safety Alon Deon got an interception with 24 seconds left.
Both teams traded three and outs to start the second half.
On the next Salpointe drive, Ryden inserted quarterback Avelar to give the offense a different look. This is something the Lancers have done all season long, using both Alvarez and Avelar.
“When (Alvarez) is struggling a little bit, we bring (Avelar) in and try to change it up and get on track. There’s really no plan as far as when we are going to bring one in or the other. We’re lucky that we have two guys that can both play,” said Ryden.
There was no scoring in the third quarter, with Salpointe punting and missing a field goal and Saguaro turning the ball over on its last drive of the quarter. Salpointe led 21-8 going into the fourth quarter.
Bio: Henry Kaplowitz is a senior at The University of Arizona studying journalism. He is interested in sports reporting and can be reached at henrykaplowitz@arizona.edu.
Recommended for you
