Walden Grove erased a 15-point first-half deficit, scoring 25 unanswered points in the second half to defeat Sahuaro 25-15 in a 4A Kino region opener Friday night at Walden Grove High School.
The Red Wolves trailed 15-0 at halftime, but scored touchdowns on its first two possessions of the third quarter — a 64-yard touchdown pass from Gauge Abalos to Wheeler Delancey on the opening drive of the second half, and a 6-yard touchdown run by Dominic Sanchez to tie the game at 15 — before pulling away for the win.
“It really just put an exclamation point on what we were trying to accomplish there, and really got our motor going there in the second half, huge play,” Walden Grove head coach Corey Noble said of Abalos and Delancey’s 64-yard touchdown connection.
Walden Grove capped off the comeback with three big plays in the final five minutes.
A 35-yard field goal gave Walden Grove (4-2, 1-0 4A Kino) its first lead of the night, 18-15, with 4:35 remaining. Walden Grove’s Jordan Dobson intercepted a pass in Red Wolves’ territory with just under two minutes remaining. In the waning seconds, Sahuaro (4-2, 0-1) had one last shot on 4th-and-12 at Walden Grove’s 45-yard line, but Paul Delgado intercepted the pass and ran it back for a touchdown.
A pick 6 by Paul Delgado on 4th and 12 puts Walden Grove up 25-15 and seals the deal for Red Wolves. WG trailed 15-0 at half. Big come from behind 4A Kino win for Red Wolves. @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/7g3sWALGXG
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) October 4, 2025
Noble embraced the uphill challenge the Red Wolves faced at halftime, using the adversity the team experienced in the first half as a teaching moment to motivate the team to be at its best in the second half.
“I said, “Now we’ve got a great opportunity to show who we are and go dig ourselves out of it if we execute, we play a big-time, hard-to-beat, dangerous brand of football when we’re executing and not hurting ourselves.” And we proved that in the second half tonight,” Noble said.
Walden Grove head coach Corey Noble was excited about the challenge of being down 15-0 to Sahuaro at half. He used the challenge as a motivational moment for his team. @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/jifvHrwU0Z
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) October 4, 2025
The game began and, for the most part, continued throughout as a run-heavy defensive battle. It was scoreless through the first quarter.
With nine minutes left in the second quarter, Sahuaro’s Joshua Cruz forced a strip sack, and the Cougars recovered the ball around the Walden Grove 25-yard line. Anakin Alexander punched it in a 7-yard touchdown run, and then ran in the two-point conversion to give the Cougars an 8-0 lead. Late in the quarter, Xavier Shelton hauled in a 69-yard reception that put the Cougars at the Walden Grove 11-yard line, and Julian Perez finished the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run as time expired in the first half.
Abalos talked with the offense about the need to bounce back from adversity before the Red Wolves mounted the second-half comeback.
“I told them, “Hey, we’ve got to slow down a little bit. And that’s when we started doing that, and we started doing good,” he said. “We started making plays, we started making tries and started getting penalties for the defense. So I was pretty glad they listened to me.”
Walden Grove quarterback Gauge Abalos said he talked with the offense about calming down to start the second half. @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/PRWkVBXTOz
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) October 4, 2025
Senior defensive end standout Steven Valdez, a New Mexico State commit, also motivated the team at their lowest point of the game, using positive reinforcement in the locker room at half.
“I took it upon myself to take that leadership role as a senior and just come in to the locker room and bring our guys up. All positivity. Never want to bring them down in such a moment like that,” he said.
Walden Grove DE/T Steven Valdez took it upon himself as a senior leader to motivate the team at half when the Red Wolves trailed Sahuaro 15-0. @AllSportsTucson pic.twitter.com/Cu865MuWSr
— Kevin Murphy (@KevinMurfee) October 4, 2025
Sahuaro struggled all second half at finding the rhythm it had during the second quarter.
Noble was emphatic about the potential of his defensive unit when they play clean football.
“When we’re not having the bad plays, when we’re not having the plays where someone takes a play off, someone does one of those things that hurts us, we are a freaking elite on defense,” Noble said. “Our defense is the heartbeat of our team.”
The win over Sahuaro to begin region play is something Noble hopes will lead to more success each week toward the goal of winning 4A Kino, praising the Cougars as “a good team”, and “a good opponent.”
“Our goal is to win the region, and you’ve got to take them one at a time,” he said. “This was the first one, and we seized that opportunity. Huge game. Huge game for us.”
Next up for Walden Grove is another 4A Kino home game against defending 4A state champions Mica Mountain (4-2, 1-0), which opened region play with a 40-0 win over visiting Douglas on Friday. The Thunderbolts have become the measuring stick for the Red Wolves since joining the region.
It’s an especially big game for Valdez, who, as a four-year varsity player, has been on the losing end against the Thunderbolts the past three seasons.
“I haven’t won against them. It’s just kind of that chip on my shoulder for me. We just want to come in and just take over right away,” he said. “If we win that game, it’ll definitely also be another confidence booster for all of us.”
Sahuaro hosts Catalina Foothills (3-3, 1-1) on Friday at 7 p.m.
FOLLOW @KEVINMURFEE ON TWITTER! ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com writer Kevin Murphy was born and raised in Tucson, and has followed Arizona Wildcats athletics since childhood. Murphy is a journalist product manager with the Green Valley News the Sahuarita Sun. He has a bachelor’s degree from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU.
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