MESA — The sun has set on the season for the No. 5 Salpointe Catholic Lancers following a rough 41-10 loss to No. 4 Mesa Mountain View in the quarterfinals of the 6A playoffs Friday night. Things got off to a rough start for Salpointe and its difficulties continued throughout the duration of the game, as the Lancers struggled with turnovers and running the ball.
“We turned the ball over too many times tonight,” Salpointe first-year head coach Pat Ryden said. “We had some opportunities early in the first half and we didn’t capitalize on them… Had a little bit of a hard time running the ball. [Mountain View] is good. They’re a good football team.”
Salpointe got the ball to start the game, but unfortunately the opening drive didn’t go its way. Quarterback Rayce Alvarez was picked off by Mountain View’s Jasper Lake, who returned the ball to the Lancers’ 22. On the play, lineman Cruz Huerta got seriously injured, as the ambulance was called out and he was taken away to the hospital.
From there, Mountain View — coached by Tucson native Andy Litten — attempted a field goal but missed, giving Salpointe one of its only breaks on the night.
Later on in the first quarter, Mountain View was able to take the goose egg off the board on a pass from Brady Goodman to Talan Arnett, which Arnett took in for six. The kick by John Girard was good, making it 7-0 with 49.9 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
Salpointe got the ball back but on the following drive, Lake came up with another pick to close out the first quarter of play. Giving the ball back to the Toros, they were able to capitalize on the turnover with a touchdown by Reese Bodily, who ran the ball in to the end zone. Girard’s extra point was good, making it 14-0 with 10:58 remaining in the second quarter.
Following a change at quarterback to Matt Avelar, the Lancers were able to progress down the field and reach the end zone. Avelar took it in on a quarterback keeper, and Kyah Francone‘s extra-point attempt was good, making it 14-7 with 6:04 remaining in the first half.
With the remaining time before the half, the teams exchanged field goals to go into the locker room with Mountain View leading 17-10.
The Toros got the ball coming out of the half and wasted no time getting back to the end zone. With 11:15 left in the third, Bodily had an explosive run for a touchdown to extend the Mountain View lead. The extra point attempt was good, making it 24-10.
Mountain View continued to pour it on Salpointe, extending the lead on its following possession. After moving the chains down the field, the Toros finished off the drive with a quarterback keeper from Goodman. The kick by Girard is good, making it 31-10 with 6:28 still remaining in the third quarter.
On the first snap of Salpointe’s following drive, the Lancers were again picked off, this time by Brody Anderson, to turn the ball back over to the Toros. Again, capitalizing on the turnover, Mountain View was able to score on a run by Bodily. Girard’s kick was good, making it 38-10 with 3:30 remaining in the third.
With 1:05 remaining in the third quarter, Mountain View fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Salpointe, but the Lancers’ struggles continued. After reaching the red zone, the Salpointe was picked off by the Toros once again at the start of the fourth quarter.
After chewing away quite a bit of time off the clock on their following possession, the Toros were able to answer with a field goal by Girard, making it 41-10 with 5:35 left to play.
Salpointe tried to answer, but unfortunately its following possession resulted in yet another interception for Lake, his third on the night. From there, Mountain View was able to run out the clock and kneel down the ball to win the game.
“I’m super proud of our guys,” Ryden said. “Those guys never quit.”
It was a crushing loss for Salpointe, especially for the seniors, many of whom saw their playing careers come to an end tonight.
“We ask an awful lot of our kids, and I’ll tell you what, our seniors have worked,” Ryden said. “Most of these seniors have been with our program for four years now and they’ve done a fantastic job. We appreciate everything they’ve done.”
While Ryden is less than thrilled with the outcome of the game, he knows there’s a lot to look forward to with the returning underclassmen. He says they’ll take some time to evaluate the team and see where they can make improvements moving forward.
“We’ve gotta compete,” Ryden said. “We’ve got a lot of good kids at Salpointe. The thing I always want to do is compete at everything they do. Compete in the classroom, compete in the weight room, compete on the field. If we do that, we’re gonna be better.”
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