No. 9 Tanque Verde High School dominated No. 24 Tonopah Valley 43-6 at home Friday night in the first round of the 2A playoffs.
The Hawks (9-2) will make the 220-mile trek to northern Arizona to play at No. 8 Camp Verde (7-3) on Friday at 7 p.m. in the second round of the playoffs.
Senior standout running back Cooper Payne was everywhere for the Hawks, finishing with 45 receiving yards, 16 rushing yards and a touchdown, two blocked punts and a sack. Sebastian Blakeman recovered both blocked punts, returning one for a touchdown, while also rushing for 54 yards and another score.
Tanque Verde opened strong, forcing a three-and-out on Tonopah Valley’s first possession before blocking a punt and recovering it deep in Phoenix territory. Two plays later, Payne punched in a 5-yard touchdown run to give the Hawks an early lead.
“Watching the film, we saw they were a three-man shield, and we thought we could take advantage of it,” head coach Jeff Bollnow said. “Luckily, we were right.”
The Hawks’ defense kept the pressure on as Anthony Torgeson recorded a sack to force another punt. Tanque Verde capitalized quickly, this time scoring on a 15-yard touchdown run by Schmuker Colt to make it 14-0.
After Tonopah Valley (4-7) another three-and-out, Payne blocked his second punt of the night, which Blakeman scooped up and returned for a touchdown to extend the lead to 21-0.
“I would come around the edge and Cooper (Payne) would crease and then come and block the kick and I would just come and scoop it up,” Blakeman said about the two blocks in the game.
The Phoenix offense continued to struggle against the relentless Hawks defense, going three-and-out yet again. Starting from its own 48, Tanque Verde drove 52 yards in four plays, capped by a touchdown pass from Rocco Haggard to Aiden Cooper. A botched snap turned into a successful two-point conversion, pushing the lead to 29-0, all before the first quarter ended.
The second quarter brought more of the same. Blakeman added a 21-yard touchdown run, and Torgeson intercepted a pass and returned it for another score, putting Tanque Verde ahead 43-0 at halftime.
“The guy (the quarterback) threw it and I’m right here, and he goes and throws this way…I catch it right here and I just kept on running,” Torgeson said, demonstrating what he saw on the field.
With a running clock in the second half, scoring slowed down until quarterback Logan Mcmanaman broke free for a 55-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to get Tonopah Valley on the board before the end of the game.
“Today it worked out well. These guys had my back,” Bollnow said. “I wasn’t feeling the best, but they brought the energy and played their butts off.”
Tanque Verde’s focus is now on Camp Verde, which has lost its last two games after compiling a seven-game winning streak.
“Now we’ve got to make a run on the road from here on out,” Payne said. “We’re just going to go out and do our thing.”
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