Walden Grove football countered Mica Mountain’s fourth quarter comeback with a last-minute touchdown and two-point conversion to top the Thunderbolts’ last minute score.
On Friday night on the road, No. 10 Walden Grove (5-2, 2-0 4A Kino) knocked off No. 1 Mica Mountain (6-1, 1-1 4A Kino) 22-21, snapping the two-time defending 4A state champions’ 16-game winning streak.
Walden Grove head coach Corey Noble said it was a “special, special win.”
“That’s why you do it, this is the type of game that you do it for,” Noble said. “The way that I want to be as a coach, the team that I want to have as a coach is a team that plays the best in the biggest moments and the biggest games, and that’s, that’s what we did (Friday) night.”
PHOTO GALLERY BY LEXIE FEGAN
Since joining the region in 2022, Mica Mountain has won the 4A Kino three times and carried a 11-game region win streak into the game.
“It feels great, we started the game off with our foot on the pedal and then our team came out the second half, we went through some adversity and we didn’t give up a single time and I’m so proud of my team for just staying through thick and thin and having a high mindset to win this game and it’s really incredible to see what we did (Friday) night,” said Walden Grove senior cornerback Jordan Dobson.
After Mica Mountain rallied from a fourth quarter 14-point deficit, senior receiver/defensive back Nic Regina returned a Red Wolves punt for a touchdown in the last minute as the Thunderbolts took a 21-14 lead.
However, Walden Grove responded with a 50-yard touchdown reception by Dobson where he juked a defender and broke tackles to get the visitors to within a point.
“It was great, I had the ball in my hands and I was like, ‘I just can’t get down, I got to go score,’” Dobson said. “So I have about four defenders on me, I got them off me and just it was a foot race to the end zone and I completed it.”
Rather than play for overtime, Walden Grove elected to go for the win with 12 seconds to go. Senior tight end/defensive end Nick Roberts caught the two-point conversion to give Red Wolves the lead and their defense held off Mica Mountain’s last couple of plays to secure the win.
“The day that I decide to kick an extra point there, I’m firing myself the next day, we will always go for the win,” said Noble, who also serves as the school’s athletic director. “We’re here to win, my kids deserve an opportunity, I have faith in my kids. I believe in my kids and I want to show them I believe in them and give them the opportunity to win.
“I tell them it’s about us, I tell them to be aggressive and that I want to be aggressive, and in the biggest moments, that’s when it matters. If I tell them we’re about this certain way, these are the things that are important to us and in the biggest moment I don’t do it, it’s talk and it’s not just that. I want my kids to know that I believe in them and that I trust them to rise to the occasion.”
Walden Grove was without senior quarterback Matt Avelar after he got injured in his 2026 debut in their 24-19 win over Sahuaro last week. The Idaho commit transferred from Salpointe and had to sit out half the regular season.
Noble said they don’t know how long Avelar will be out. He has an appointment next week.
In Avelar’s stead, Walden Grove turned to freshman Miguel Alvarez and senior tight end/linebacker Paul Delgado. Alvarez passed for 87 yards and ran for 49, including 36-yard rush on their final drive.
Delgado threw the game winning pass on the two-point conversion.
“We play four quarterbacks this year and they’ve all done an incredible job, for Paul Delgado to right now Miguel Alvarez, (sophomore) Jace McGee, who’s going to be coming back here soon, all those guys have stepped up and it’s a huge credit to our offensive coaching staff as well,” Noble said. “It’s hard to get one quarterback ready, it’s really hard to get two quarterbacks ready; we’ve played four guys this year and they got them all ready to play and compete.”
Noble said he “could not be more proud of the grit of their players” after the seized the momentum back from the Thunderbolts after giving up the 14-point lead.
Walden Grove is now on a four-game winning streak.
“It was all about the positivity on our team. every time we got down, our team came back together and we encouraged each other to go back on the field and get the ball back and it was amazing, amazing teamwork,” Dobson said.
In the first half, Walden Grove jumped out to a 14-0 lead off of touchdown runs by senior fullback/defensive tackle Dominic Sanchez and Dobson. Junior cornerback/receiver Rashad Marshall got an interception that led to Dobson’s 14-yard score.
Mica Mountain threatened to cut the lead in half but Dobson got an interception in the end zone.
After a scoreless third quarter, the rivals lit up the scoreboard in the fourth.
Mica Mountain senior running back Jeremiah Anderson caught an 11-yard touchdown catch to get the Thunderbolts on the board.
Then sophomore quarterback Adam Becker tied it up with a 19-yard touchdown run.
Although Mica Mountain led the series 3-0 going into this year’s game, the scores were 21-7 in 2023, 16-6 in 2024 and 20-14 last season.
“It’s amazing, all the four years, I’ve been here at Walden Grove we never beat Mica Mountain,” Dobson said. “Mica Mountain’s been the top of the program and the best team we’ve ever played in our life, but just beating them (Friday) night is truly a milestone. I’ll be able to carry it until I’m out of high school, so I’m really proud of that.”
The game was a matchup of two of Southern Arizona’s newest programs, with Walden Grove first playing a full varsity schedule in 2012 and Mica Mountain first playing 10 varsity games in 2022.
“It’s the biggest win in school history, which, one side of that coins it says that we haven’t had very many big wins in our school’s history because it’s a regular season game and it’s not more than that,” Noble said. “Like I said, we got three more regular season games and none of those opponents care about this one but Mica is the team, Mica is our rival and I’ve said that for years now for, this at least the third year they’re the game that’s — with no disrespect to anybody else in our schedule, there’s some big games on our schedule and I think every game’s a big game — but there’s some opponents that it means more, but Mica is chief among them because of the respect that we have for them and for the program they’ve built from the top down all the way here.
“They are one of the premier programs in Southern Arizona and we want to put our name on that list and we’ve played our best game of the year, I think the last two years against Mica and come up short. So to do it tonight and not come up short, it’s a hell of a feeling.”
Up next for Mica Mountain is a trip to No. 55 Amphitheater (1-6, 0-2) on Friday and their last regular season home game is Oct. 30 against Sahuaro.
Walden Grove hosts No. 33 Catalina Foothills (2-5, 1-1) in its next game, on Friday.
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