ALLSPORTSTUCSON.COM CONTINUES ITS 50 POSTS FOR THE 50-DAY COUNTDOWN TO THE 2025 SEASON THAT STARTS AUG. 22 FOR SOME SOUTHERN ARIZONA SCHOOLS WITH A LOOK AT THE TOP 3A EAST GAMES TO WATCH THIS SEASON FOR EACH PROGRAM. CATCH UP WITH ALL THE POSTS BY CLICKING HERE.
RELATED: 3A EAST SCHEDULES AND RETURNING 3A ALL-CONFERENCE AND ALL-REGION SELECTIONS
3A EAST
COOLIDGE
- Sept. 26, at Florence. The Bears, who lead the rivalry series with Florence 43-34-3, are coming off three straight losses against the Gophers, including a 68-0 loss at home last year. The schools from the small towns north of Tucson are less than 10 miles apart, which means fans from both schools pack the stadiums. The series dates to 1935. Coolidge is trying to rebound from a 0-10 season following the return of legendary coach Carlo Hernandez.
FLORENCE
- Sept. 12, Thatcher at home. Florence’s first game in the 3A East (after the realignment of the regions in the spring) will be against the traditionally strong Eagles, who have knocked the Gophers out of the 3A state playoffs the last two seasons. Florence, 9-2 last season, will host a Thatcher team that went 10-3 and lost in the semifinals to ALA-West Foothills. This is one of the best games in the state to be played in the first month of the season. Florence has lost five straight games to Thatcher dating to 2004. The teams did not play each other from 2005 to 2019.
PUSCH RIDGE
- Oct. 31, Benjamin Franklin at home. The old coaching cliché is that every game is equal and there’s no looking ahead. But it’s difficult to avoid seeing this game at the end of Pusch Ridge’s regular-season schedule. The teams met in the 3A state semifinals last season, with the Lions prevailing en route to a state title. Benjamin Franklin hosted Pusch Ridge in the regular season last year and pulled away to a 31-7 victory, the worst regular-season loss in coach Kent Middleton’s five years at the school.
SABINO
- Oct. 3, Pusch Ridge at home. The Sabercats suffered tough losses last year in their 3-7 season after losing almost 30 seniors from the 2023 state championship team. One of the defeats was against rival Pusch Ridge, who beat Sabino 42-14 at its Oro Valley home. Sabino holds a 5-3 lead in the series that dates to 2016. The Sabercats are 4-0 at home against Pusch Ridge.
SAFFORD
- Aug. 29, Blue Ridge at home. It will be the return of former Safford coach Eric Hjalmarson, who was a walk-on at Arizona during the Dick Tomey years, who also coached at Willcox before returning to his alma mater at Blue Ridge last year. The game will also be the first home game for new Safford coach Ishmael MacNeil, who left his position at Wickenburg to coach the Bulldogs.
SAN TAN FOOTHILLS
- Oct. 31, Florence at home. The regular-season finale can turn into a rivalry game between the schools about 12 miles apart. San Tan Foothills is in only its 17th year of existence. The Sabercats are 1-6 against the Gophers in their last seven meetings. They are 4-9 overall against Florence.
THATCHER
- Oct. 17, Payson at home. Payson was 8-3 last season with a loss in the first round of the 3A state tournament, while Thatcher was 10-3 with a trip to the semifinals. This late-season non-region game in the third-to-last week of the regular season should be a significant power-point booster for both teams. Payson and Thatcher, separated by almost 155 miles, have only played once before — in the first round of the 1976 state playoffs with Payson winning 28-0.
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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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