2024 High School Football

Mica Mountain earns coach Pat Nugent his first state championship with rout of AZ College Prep

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Mica Mountain coach Pat Nugent is congratulated after his team won the 4A state championship (Andy Morales/AllSportsTucson.com)

TEMPE — In his 22nd season as a head coach, and second attempt in a state title game 17 years after going this far with CDO, Pat Nugent has finally reached the zenith of his career.

With Friday night’s 42-13 win for No. 4 Mica Mountain over No. 2 Arizona College Prep at Arizona State’s Mountain America Stadium, Nugent earned his first state championship with his 172nd victory of his career — spanning stops at Flowing Wells, Canyon del Oro, Cienega and Mica Mountain.

“You’re always chasing dreams; every year you work your tail off,” Nugent said. “It doesn’t change whether you’re losing or winning you want to get here. To go out with this championship is pretty special.”

Mica Mountain started strong with three touchdowns in the first quarter against ACP and dominated throughout to finish unbeaten at 14-0 in only its third full varsity season.

The Thunderbolts rushed for 357 yards in the game. They outgained ACP 540-250 in total yards.

Running back Josiah Thornwell and quarterback Jayden Thoreson, two seniors with the program since its first games in the 2021 season, were significant contributors to Mica Mountain’s victory.

Thornwell finished with a career-high 182 yards on 19 carries with four touchdowns — also a career-best total.

“I didn’t play my best last game (with two fumbles in the semifinal win at Yuma Catholic), but we still came out with the win,” Thornwell said. “I just wanted to come out and show that we’re a very strong team that can compete with anyone in the state.”

Thoreson completed 13 of 17 passes for 183 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.

He also rushed for a career-best 73 yards on eight carries, including a 42-yard touchdown run.

“I’ve never run the ball this well,” Thoreson said. “I think tonight I had the most rushing yards in my career. I’m at a loss for words.”

Jimmy Leon, another standout among Mica Mountain’s 31 seniors, had five receptions for 70 yards as a tight end.

He also had five tackles and broke up a pass as a defensive end.

“We knew the last game of the season would be on the big stage and we knew playing for each other would put us on top,” Leon said.

Junior linebackers Broden Schmidt and Ben Weinzinger each had eight tackles and a tackle for loss to lead Mica Mountain’s stout defense.

Schmidt also broke up a pass in the end zone with a bone-jarring hit.

His 91 tackles this season led a defense, guided by defensive coordinator Brett Darling, that limited opponents to a phenomenal 6.5 points a game.

“My team just set me up for success this game,” Schmidt said. “I had their back; they had mine. That play in the end zone, I saw my safety needed help. I came and helped him.

“I’m honored (to lead Mica Mountain in tackles as a junior). I have the best defensive coordinator in the state, the best D-line, the best safeties, best corner and linebacker corps in the state, so I’m honored to be around them.”

Thornwell made the knockout punch with a 24-yard touchdown run with 6:19 left, culminating a 97-yard scoring drive.

Thornwell had five carries for 66 yards in the drive that produced the final margin.

“He was one of the first kids I met coming in,” Nugent said about entering into the 2021 season at the brand new school at Vail. “He wanted to go to Mica Mountain. He believed in coming. He’s just a great kid in the weight room. Great kid on the field.

“To see him go out on top is amazing.”

Thornwell’s rushing total in the game allowed him to eclipse the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career. He finished with 1,063 yards on 148 carries with 17 touchdowns this season.

ACP also played in its first state championship game after opening its doors in 2017 and the Knights played with 37 seniors.

“The same recipe as last offseason: hit the weight room hard, hit the track hard, do all of our football activities,” ACP coach Steve Vaught told the AZCentral.com. “Obviously, we’re heading in the right direction. Let’s build off the momentum from a great season that we had.”

Thornwell gave a precursor to Mica Mountain’s dominance in the game, punctuating the game’s first possession with a 1-yard touchdown run with 8:36 left in the first quarter. Thornwell’s 19-yard pass to Jake Johnson to the ACP 6 set up the score.

Mica Mountain running back Josiah Thornwell strikes a Heisman pose en route to a career-high 182 yards rushing in the 42-13 win over AZ College Prep in the 4A state championship game (Gilbert Alcaraz/AllSportsTucson.com)

The Knights also had two unsportsmanlike penalties that aided the scoring drive, including a uniform infraction on the kickoff to open the game.

After Mica Mountain’s defense forced ACP into a three-and-out, Thoreson ran untouched around the left perimeter 42 yards for a touchdown, putting the Thunderbolts ahead 14-0 with 7:05 remaining in the quarter.

ACP took advantage of a pass interference call to put together a scoring drive on its next possession.

Tyler Lowder’s 19-yard run with 3:39 left in the quarter cut the lead to 14-7.

Thornwell again frustrated ACP’s defense with the run in the next drive, gaining 44 yards on four carries, capped by his 7-yard score with 31 seconds left in the first quarter.

Three touchdowns in the first quarter served notice that this was Mica Mountain’s game.

“The whole goal was beat them up as soon as we can,” Thoreson said. “The phrase Coach Darling says to us every week is, ‘How fast can we make them quit?’ I think that those first 21 points, foot on the gas that quick, it really shows.

“Then the defense has to shut them out like they do and it’s game over.”

After ACP was forced to punt, Thoreson connected with Riley Carson for a 47-yard score, giving Mica Mountain a 28-7 lead with 6:34 left in the second quarter.

The score remained 28-7 at halftime with Thornwell gaining 102 yards on 11 carries with two touchdowns at that point. Thoreson was also 9 of 13 for 152 yards and a touchdown.

ACP parlayed a fake punt, gaining 36 yards on a pass, into a touchdown drive to open the second half.

Evan Heinrich’s 2-yard score on a quarterback keeper cut the lead to 28-13 with 7:18 left in the third quarter. After an encroachment penalty on the Thunderbolts on the point-after attempt, ACP tried a 2-point conversion run from the 1 and it failed.

“They got us on that fake punt and we weren’t able to recover following that (allowing the touchdown),” Darling said. “We went down and scored by the offense, and our defense went into lockdown again.

“One thing about our defense is we are an aggressive, physical defense. In 14 games, we’ve done that.”

As Darling stated, Mica Mountain’s offense quickly responded to ACP’s score following the successful fake punt.

Thoreson’s 11-yard pass to Leon and his 17-yard run set up Thornwell for his third touchdown run. His 2-yard score increased the lead to 35-13 with 4:05 left in the third quarter.

Mica Mountain’s defense then stopped ACP at the Thunderbolt 3 after a 37-yard pass from Heinrich to Brady Barkdoll gave the Knights a first-and-goal at the 2.

The goal-line stops included Weinzinger on a tackle for loss of two yards, Schmidt and Shangkat Jwander on a combined tackle for no gain, and Jaysen Criswell and Cameron Groves executing a tackle for only a 1-yard gain before an incomplete pass in the end zone resulted in a turnover on downs.

Mica Mountain then sealed the victory with the 97-yard scoring drive, completed by Thornwell’s 24-yard touchdown sprint through the gut of the ACP defense.

“To beat ACP the way we did running the ball, it was just a dominant performance,” Nugent said. “Richard Sanchez (who coached Sunnyside to state titles in 2001 and 2003), (who is) our O-line coach and the line, five seniors strong, played their butts off all night. It was just a magical night.”

FOLLOW @JAVIERJMORALES ON TWITTER!

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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