Walden Grove football exorcised some demons on Friday night in the second round of the 4A state tournament.
After the Red Wolves blew a 22-point fourth quarter lead to Phoenix Northwest Christian in the first round of the state tournament last season and lost to Mesa Eastmark 26-23 on Sept. 4 at home, No. 6 Walden Grove came back to knock out Eastmark 24-21 on Friday.
“This team, ain’t got no quit in them, we went through a lot of adversity (Friday) night, went through a lot of adversity this season and these guys just kept answering the bell,” said WG head coach Corey Noble. “Super proud of these guys, there’s a lot of opportunities for that to not go our way and a lot of opportunities to ride the roller coaster down and not keep answering the bell and not keep focusing on the next play.
“That’s hard to do and these guys freaking did it, these guys did it all night and I’m super happy for them super proud.”
Eastmark also beat Walden Grove, 16-13, in Mesa last season.
Through their first 11 games, Eastmark senior running back Zaiden Virani ran for 1,792 on 238 carries, 7.5 yards per attempt. He had a couple touchdowns on Friday.
“Eastmark, they’re an incredible team,” said WG senior Jordan Dobson. “They have a really good running back that’s probably one of the best running backs ever played, but just getting it here at home for the first time in school history and having the first second round playoff win in school history, it’s a really big blessing, especially being a senior.”
Walden Grove has won eight in a row.
The Red Wolves marched down the field and scored a touchdown on their opening drive. However, Eastmark responded with a touchdown of their own on their first drive.
In their last close game, at Mica Mountain on Oct. 9, Walden Grove showed a fourth quarter poise similar to what they displayed on Friday. MM went ahead late in the fourth quarter only for WG to respond with a touchdown and two-point conversion in the final minute to snap the two-time defending 4A state champions’ 16-game winning streak.
“I think this year, especially, we just don’t break, like last year we’d get down and then we’d kind of just stay down and get on each other about being wrong,” said WG senior defensive end/tight end Nick Roberts. “And then this year, we kind of just like, ‘hey, it’s okay, next play’s the one that matters.’”
Then Eastmark went up 14-7 but Walden Grove tied it up after an 80-yard touchdown reception by Dobson.
“He’s a freaking warrior, man; he’s a warrior and he is one of the best players I’ve ever been around, I’ve ever coached,” Noble said about Dobson. “I think every team we played this year would tell you he’s the best player they’ve seen and I don’t think that that’s an accident.
“He’s not just one of the best players in southern Arizona, he’s one of the best players in state of Arizona,” he added. “He’s electric on both sides of the football, put the ball in his hands as a decoy at blocking, running routes, carrying the ball on defense, stopping the run, playing man coverage.”
Dobson said his success was due to his coaches.
Trailing 21-14, WG blocked a punt and got a safety a play after their defense almost got one on third down.
“It was great, we pushed all their players back into the kicker and the kicker kicked it right into his teammates,” Dobson said. “So it was perfect timing and as soon as we got that momentum, we kept it up to whole game and we put a stop to what they were doing on offense.”
On the ensuing possession senior cornerback/receiver Jeremiah Hayes scored the game winning touchdown.
Eastmark got one last drive after getting an interception on Walden Grove’s last possession but Roberts got a sack to seal the victory as time ran out on the Firebirds.
Noble has made the playoffs seven times in his 10 years at the helm of WG. The Red Wolves are 2-6 in the postseason.
It’s the third time since 2023 that Walden Grove has played a team the second time in the playoffs. In 2023 they lost a pair to Northwest Christian but in 2024 they knocked out NC after losing to them in the season opener.
“We saw them in week two and when you’re playing a team early in the season, you don’t got very much to go off of, you gotta kind of fill in the blanks and guess some and make some some guesses as to what you think they’re going to do, whereas now, obviously we have most of the season to go off of and really kind of hone in and see what they do,” Noble said. “And we made some mistakes and some of those things (Friday) night, but it definitely helps when you’ve seen them once.
“Film can be a little deceptive in terms of size and and speed and some of those things so when you have the viewpoint of you’ve seen them and when the kids on the field have seen them, they know, ‘hey, I know how this guy feels’ to guard or go against or whatever and it can make a big difference for sure.”
While Walden Grove has had a slew of injuries, their playoff journey started on Friday in the second round and the bye helped them get to almost full strength.
“We had a couple guys down at bye week, we let them rest up, eat some good food be healthy for the next weekend,” Dobson said, “this game right here we had all the players.”
Up next for Walden Grove is No. 14 Yuma Gila Ridge on Friday at 7 p.m. in the quarterfinals. GR upset No. 3 Prescott 35-34 on the road Friday night. Gila Ridge opened the playoffs by beating No. 19 Sahuaro 31-28 at home.
Last season the Hawks reached the state semifinals where they fell to Mica Mountain 31-3.
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