2025 High School Football

Bernal Fitness & Performance Pigskin Portfolio: Buena wins at Cienega for first time

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Buena gathered for a team photo after outlasting Cienega 38-31 on Friday night (Javier Morales/AllSportsTucson.com)

Buena coach Joe Thomas gathered his players in the midst of their postgame celebration for a team photo on Cienega’s home turf, commemorating the first time the Colts beat the Bobcats there.

Buena turned back Cienega from a late rally to win 38-31 Friday night in the season opener for the former region rivals. Buena is now in the 5A Sonoran and Cienega in the 5A Southern.

That was reason enough for the Colts to celebrate, but as Thomas told his players, “This is history!” regarding the first win in Vail against Cienega after losing the first eight matchups there dating to 2010.

“Last year, we beat them at home, probably for the first time in a long time,” said Thomas, whose team ended a nine-game losing streak to Cienega with the victory last year at Sierra Vista. “To beat them here at their place, it’s nice to go back to back.”

Buena’s newfound success against Cienega, a traditional power with coaches such Nemer Hassey, Pat Nugent, and, now Justin Argraves, is indicative of how the Colts have transformed from also-rans to running over opponents in Thomas’ career.

He started 0-21 over his first three seasons at Buena from 2015 to 2017 and has gone 48-29 since. He is a rare example of a person who somehow remained as head coach through very lean times to start a career at a school.

Buena’s history at Cienega
2010 – L, 56-15
2012 – L, 47-25
2014 – L, 59-20
2015 – L, 43-22
2016 – L, 62-17
2019 – L, 26-19
2022 – L, 49-19
2023 – L, 17-6
2025 – W, 38-31

INSTANT CLASSIC

The end of the game came down to Cienega having the ball at the Buena 6 after a snap went over the head of the Colts’ punter with 1:38 minutes remaining.

Three rushing attempts by Jalen Horn took the ball to the 2 with 15 seconds left.

Cienega quarterback Julian Hainley took the snap with 2 seconds remaining, stepped back in the pocket and then ran toward the end zone.

Cooper Kraus, involved in a couple of sacks earlier in the game when Cienega drove inside the 10, was able to trip Hainley by grabbing his legs. That enabled fellow linebacker T.J. Walker to get the tackle on Hainley, stopping him 1 yard short of the end zone after time had expired.

“If I’m being honest, I didn’t think anything,” Kraus said when asked what he thought when he saw Hainley breaking toward the end zone. “I just did what I do, make tackles.”

Walker, interviewed with a large bag of ice on his sore right wrist, said he “made a good hit” on Hainley, approaching from Hainley’s left side. A second later to the play and Hainley would have gained the angle on Walker and reached the end zone. Walker tackled him square, knocking him to the ground with little room to spare.

“Just being a smart individual, going to school every day; it’s good to be smart during football,” Walker said of realizing he had to break toward Hainley when he did.

Thomas said he challenged his defense after the punt went over the punter’s head and gave Cienega the ball only 6 yards from the end zone.

“How bad do you want it?” he said he asked his team. “They wanted to win. They stepped it up. They made two nice plays in a row (stopping Horn and Hainley). Time was on our side.

“It worked out good for us this time.”

A GAME OF WILLS, LONG DRIVES & BIG PLAYS

Cienega seized the momentum of the game in the second half after trailing 24-3 following an 86-yard touchdown run by Ricardo Brooks and then 31-10 after an 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Jayden Thomas (the head coach’s son).

Hainley directed consecutive touchdown drives ahead of halftime before engineering a 14-play, 65-yard scoring drive that took 7:42 off the clock to begin the second half.

His 13-yard pass to Ayden Billings capped the possession, cutting Buena’s lead to 31-24.

“A lot of our guys, including T.J. and J.T. (Thomas), they go both ways (playing defense and offense), and playing in a game like this, it’s fricking hot out,” Kraus explained for some defensive breakdowns that allowed Cienega to convert on three fourth-down plays, two during the lengthy possession to start the second half.

“It’s tiring for them; they can’t always give 110 percent all of the time on every play. But, it also helps them make plays. They know they’re tired. They know they have to keep going. They’re like, ‘I need to make this big play, so I can take a break.'”

Buena’s defense was stout against the run throughout, limiting Cienega to 50 yards on 31 attempts.

Cienega’s defensive front, which included linebacker Davion Ross and defensive end Andrei Lopez-Davis, and others, constantly applied pressure to Buena quarterback Kaleb Layton (playing his first game with the Colts after transferring from Walden Grove).

Buena turned the ball over on downs in the first possession of the second half when Layton was forced once again to scramble out of the pocket and was sacked at the Colt 46 with 12 seconds left in the third quarter.

Cienega punted after three straight incompletions. Buena then had a lengthy drive of its own of 15 plays that covered 69 yards, culminating with Brooks’ 2-yard touchdown run with 4:13 left, putting the Colts ahead 38-24.

Hainley responded by completing four of five pass attempts on the following possession, ending with a 23-yard scoring strike to Billings to cut the lead to 38-31.

Buena endured two sacks and a tackle for lost yardage on a running play, forcing the Colts to punt with less than 1:40 left. That’s when the game got even more wild with the snap over the punter’s head.

BROOKS PRODUCES IN FIRST GAME AS RUNNING BACK

Brooks bided his time at the varsity level last year, being a backup defensive back. With 1,000-yard rusher Andres Bonilla off to Western New Mexico, Thomas needed a running back who could be a good complement to senior Michael Lujan in the backfield.

Brooks is that guy. He finished with 143 yards on 10 carries with three touchdowns.

Lujan produced as well, rushing for 66 yards on 17 carries.

“I just saw a hole; saw one person, shaked him, and then I was gone,” Brooks said of his 86-yard touchdown run. “That track speed.”

The elder Thomas coaches Buena’s track and field team, which includes his son and Brooks as sprinters, much like he was back in the day at Tombstone High School and then Northern Arizona University.

THOMAS A BIG-PLAY THREAT

Layton’s first pass as a Colt was a 50-yard touchdown strike to a wide-open Jayden Thomas, who broke free from defenders on a post pattern. Thomas’ 80-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, including speeding by defenders, whose bodies couldn’t adjust to his speed.

Cienega purposely avoided punting or kicking the ball to him after his kickoff return for a touchdown.

“They kicked it to me — bad mistake,” he said. “I knew I was going to do something with it before the game even started. I knew I was going to take one.”

The 50-yard score was Thomas’ lone reception of the game. Count on that Layton-to-Thomas connection to prosper more as the season goes along.

CIENEGA’S JADEN RODGERS WORTH PRICE OF ADMISSION

So many playmakers on both sides of the ball stood out such Jayden Thomas, Brooks, Kraus, Walker, Hainley, Billings, Ross and Lopez-Davis.

Cienega’s Jaden Rodgers, who committed this week to Idaho State, was also amazing with eight receptions for 140 yards, including scores of 46 and 11 yards.

Hainley completed 19 of 33 pass attempts for 237 yards and four touchdowns without an interception. He was forced to scramble 15 times, and was sacked four times, but still finished with positive yardage (18 yards).

SALPOINTE WINS ON A LATE STOP OF A QB RUN AS WELL

From our Andy Morales, following Salpointe’s 20-18 victory over Marana:

Up 20-18 over Marana with a little over three minutes left, Salpointe junior QB Matthew Avelar was forced to scramble out of a pass formation and he broke free for 19 yards to erase a long third down situation.

The Marana defense held on the next set of downs but the extra effort left senior QB Colten Meyer with only 90 seconds to go 69 yards, and he almost did it. He worked his team down to the Salpointe 10-yard line with seven seconds left but his dash to the endzone was stopped at the four as time expired and Salpointe held on for the victory.

The victory was so physically and emotionally draining that head coach Pat Ryden seemed to gather himself for what looked like a long postgame speech but he turned and yelled, “We won!” and his Lancers exploded in celebration.

Salpointe’s 27-game winning streak against teams from Southern Arizona was snapped by Marana last year in the season opener at the Tigers’ field.

NOGALES ENDS 20-GAME LOSING STREAK

Nogales ended its 20-game losing streak spread over the last two seasons with Friday night’s 29-6 win over visiting Amphi.

It was the first game for head coach Warren Smith, who has a background of coaching in Florida.

Stanley Richardson, who came to Amphi after coaching in Denver, is in his first season with the Panthers.

The Apaches will attempt to end their three-game losing streak against rival Rio Rico on Friday, down I-19 at Rio Rico. Nogales won the first 13 meetings before falling the last three years.

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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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