WADDELL — It was a rough loss for the Mica Mountain Thunderbolts on Friday night, falling to the ALA-West Foothills Guardians 21-14 on the road. Turnovers proved to be too costly to overcome, as the Bolts had seven in Friday night’s crushing loss, ending their 16-game winning streak extending to last year’s run to the 4A state title.
“The reality is our kids our tough, they weren’t going to give up, but when you turn the ball over seven times in a game, it’s gonna be hard to win any football game by doing that,” Mica Mountain coach Jay Campos said.
“We didn’t put ourselves in a great situation tonight to have a chance to be successful.”
The game started with each team trading possessions and forcing punts. Defense came out strong on their second showing for Mica, forcing a quick three and out to get the ball back for their team. Mica Mountain was progressing down the field and looked as if it was going to score, reaching the red zone. A fumble put a kink in those plans, though, as the ball was recovered by the Guardians at the 5.
Defense went out and did its job again, forcing a quick three-and-out. After a short punt from the Guardians, the Bolts took over at the 29. It only took them two snaps to reach the end zone, scoring on a 24-yard touchdown pass from Jaidyn Crist to Evan Wheeler. The extra-point attempt by Riley Carson was good, making it 7-0 Mica Mountain with 1:09 remaining in the first quarter.
The teams continued to trade possessions, punting the ball back and forth for the next few drives. Eventually, the Guardians were able to break through, reaching the end zone and getting on the board with a 17-yard touchdown run by Kenyon Rosenthall. The kick was good, tying it at 7 with 4:22 remaining before the half.
On Mica Mountain’s following drive, a pass by Crist was tipped and intercepted by Matthew Lee with 3:24 remaining. The Guardians progressed down the field before eventually stalling out at the 33, turning the ball over on downs with 1:26 remaining before the half.
Mica Mountain attempted to move the ball down the field, but Lee intercepted another pass. ALA-West Foothills took over at the 31 and immediately scored, striking on a pass from Carlos Serrano to Linkin Hall. The kick was good, giving the Guardians a 14-7 lead with 1:10 remaining in the half.
The Bolts got the ball back, but the turmoil continued, as another pass was intercepted by Iziic Morales in the end zone, giving the Guardains the ball back at the 20 with just seconds left before the half.
“Defense did a good job,” Campos said. “I don’t think they got their first first down until the second quarter at some point. It’s just that we put ourselves in some bad situations and we didn’t give ourselves a chance to take advantage of what the defense was doing, especially early, and move forward from there.”
Coming out of the half, Mica Mountain struggled to protect the ball, as Kingston Conn was able to force a fumble for the Guardians. The loose ball was recovered by Titan Ashton, giving the Guardians the ball back at the 18. Capitalizing on the field position, ALA-West Foothills was able to score with Hunter Cotten punching the ball in from the 8. The extra-point attempt was good, extending Guardians’ lead to 21-7.
Mica Mountain’s following drive resulted in a punt, giving the ball back to ALA-West Foothills at the 45-yard-line with 7:04 remaining in the third. The Guardians fumbled on the drive, which was recovered by the Bolts at the 36-yard-line with 4:57 left in the 3rd quarter.
Capitalizing on the turnover, Mica Mountain was able to move the ball down the field, finishing off the drive with the a 5-yard run by Jeremiah Anderson. The kick was good, cutting the Guardians’ lead to just seven with 2:13 remaining in the third.
The Guardians’ following possession resulted in a punt, but it wouldn’t matter, as Mica Mountain would turn the ball right back over on a fumble, recovered by Rex Stabler at midfield. Unable to move the ball, ALA-West Foothills was forced to punt to start the fourth quarter.
Mica Mountain had some momentum behind it at this point, but it seemed as if all the wind was taken from its sails when Morales picked off another pass. The Guardians took over again near midfield with 9:35 remaining in the game.
The Bolts’ defense came out and got the job done, forcing a quick three-and-out. The offense got to work and started progressing downfield. Once again, the Bolts had built up some momentum, only to have it stripped away as another pass was picked off by Cannon Trythall.
From there, the Guardians were able to run out the clock, picking up what is perhaps their biggest win in the history of the program.
“I tip my hat to them,” Campos said. “They did what they needed to do to win.”
Mica Mountain will look to reset as its get back to practice. Campos said the biggest focus is going to be on eliminating mistakes, as it will completely change the trajectory of the game. The Bolts are preparing to travel to take on the Sunnyside Blue Devils next week, when they’ll look to bounce back with a win.
“We take some of those mistakes out of the game and now it’s a different ball game, so we’ve gotta do that,” Campos said. “It comes down to attitude. It comes down to effort. It comes down to execution. So there’s a lot of things we’ve got to look at and we’ve got to get better at.”
As Campos told his team in the huddle after the loss, their dreams of playing for the title under the lights of Sun Devil Stadium aren’t gone. Their championship goal is still very much in reach, and this loss will help them learn and get better.
“Sometimes you learn the most when things don’t go your way in the game,” Campos said. “Tonight, things got difficult for us and we weren’t able to throw our weight around and move the ball like we wanted to do.
“When we started pressing, we started making mistakes. If we don’t eliminate those issues, then we can’t fix the other ones going down the road. If we want to achieve our end goal, we’ve got some work to do on the front end.”
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