Past 2 champions to face off

There isn’t a lot of mystery going into today’s Division III state championship between No. 4 Queen Creek and No. 2 Scottsdale Saguaro.

Queen Creek wants to control the clock. Saguaro wants to race it.

Two very different styles will be in play when the teams face off at 1 p.m. at Arizona Stadium in Tucson. Consider this: Queen Creek is averaging 38 points per game on the season. Saguaro has scored more than that in every game but one (a 35-28 victory over Queen Creek on Oct. 4).

The biggest question seems to be: Will Queen Creek’s defense hold up, or will Saguaro run over it like it has done to so many defenses this year?

“It’s like a video game out there,” Queen Creek coach Travis Schureman said. “I don’t know that you stop a team like that. It’s a matter of, can we slow them down enough to stay in the game?”

Saguaro (12-1) is coming off a 77-48 semifinal victory over No. 3 Goodyear Desert Edge in which quarterback Luke Rubenzer tied a state 11-man record with nine touchdown passes. Queen Creek knows it needs to keep the score low to have its best shot.

“Nobody wants to get in a shootout with Saguaro,” Queen Creek running back and defensive back Matt Guida said. “That’s not really our type of game. We like to chew up clock — time of possession is key for a team like us. We like to take those long drives and capitalize on them.”

With Guida fully healthy and Weston Barlow having established himself as a force in the backfield, Queen Creek (11-2) is well-suited to that strategy. It won the state championship last year with the same style, grinding out a 9-7 vic-