Saguaro pounds Queen Creek
Scottsdale’s Saguaro High School celebrates its 47-25 win over Queen Creek in the Division III title game in Tucson. Saguaro Sabercat quarterback Luke Rubenzer passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns and runs for 72 yards and a score.
TUCSON — The emotional moments started before the final horn sounded and continued from there.
A pair of Scottsdale Saguaro players dumped the Gatorade cooler on coach Jason Mohns, who raised his arms in triumph.
No. 2 Saguaro, wearing various pieces of green to honor beloved equipment manager Mike “Tug” Garcia, who died in late September, posed for postgame pictures with an urn containing Garcia’s ashes.
And Mohns, in the middle of a TV interview, dropped to a knee and proposed to his girlfriend of almost four years, Sara Cooper, who said yes.
It was a fulfilling Friday afternoon for Mohns and Saguaro, which defeated No. 4 Queen Creek 47-25 at Arizona Stadium for the Division III championship.
“Nobody can say we didn’t prove ourselves as the champions this year,” Mohns said. “I’m really proud of these guys and proud of this coaching staff.”
Saguaro (13-1) lit up the scoreboard as it has done so often this season, but it did so with a more balanced attack than usual. It ran the ball 43 times against 28 passes, and scored four of its seven touchdowns on the ground. Junior Christian Kirk had a career-high 18 carries for 156 yards and two scores, and added 101 yards and two touchdowns receiving.
“We wanted to put the ball in our dude’s hands, and he’s our dude,” Mohns said of Kirk. “(Queen Creek) really backed off. They played more of a 3-2 (defense), they walked a lot of guys out into coverage to take away our quick passing game, so we had to run the ball.”
Saguaro quarterback Luke Rubenzer turned in another solid per- formance in his final high school game, completing 19 of 28 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns. The California commit finishes the season with 61 touchdown passes and ends his career with 130, both state records. He also owns the state career passing yardage record with 9,648 yards.
“It was a great ride,” Rubenzer said.
Saguaro scored on its first five possessions Friday, heading into halftime with a 33-19 lead. Queen Creek (11-3) never got closer than that in the second half.
The championship is Saguaro’s third in four seasons, and Mohns’ first as a head coach in his second season in charge.
“This has been an unbelievable year,” he said. “This is a family, that’s the only way to describe this team. I’m sad that it’s over, but we got some memories that’ll last us a lifetime.”