Saguaro resumes dominance over state foes
There were no hiccups. Scottsdale Saguaro still is the king of 4A football in Arizona.
It showed that in a 42-14 rout of No. 3ranked Gilbert Higley in a 4A football game in which Saguaro needed to show that it still has what it takes to win a fifth consecutive state championship.
Saguaro coach Jason Mohns won’t say that his team is back after losing successive games to quality out-of-state competition, Henderson (Nev.) Liberty and Salt Lake City (Utah) East.
There were still 15 penalties his team made. And quarterback Max Massingale took a pounding at times, trying to maneuver around in the backfield with a young, inexperienced offensive line still trying to find itself.
But Higley (2-1) returned 14 starters from a team that went deep in the playoffs and felt it had gained ground against Saguaro.
That wasn’t the case for most of Friday night.
“They’re a good program, it’s something we aspire to be,” Higley coach Eddy Zubey said. “We have to go back to the drawing board to try to figure it out.”
Standout performer
Massingale passed for 235 yards yards and a touchdown and ran for 58 yards and a score to lead the Sabercarts (2-2).
More standouts
Massingale’s primary target was wide receiver Zach Wilson, who had nine catches for 124 yards. Wilson’s touchdown came on a 10-yard lateral pass that gave Saguaro a 7-0 lead on its opening drive.
Saguaro wide receiver Logan Pettijohn made a great try on a diving catch that was ruled he trapped. But he later burned Higley’s secondary on a post pattern for 49-yard scoring catch from Massingale for a 28-6 lead early in the second half.
Higley senior tailback Draycen Hall was stuffed for a 2-yard loss on his first carry, but Saguaro was penalized 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct on the play. Hall had 50 rushing yards and 31 receiving yards in the first half when Saguaro put Higley in a 21-6 hole. Most of Hall’s damage came after Saguaro had built a huge lead in the second half. He finished with 160 yards on 16 carries.
Star watch
Saguaro is hoping for tailback La’Ray Lucas to be similar to graduated Stone Matthews, who ran for more than 2,000 yards in each of his final two seasons. He doesn’t have the linemen that Matthews had, but Lucas showed glimpses of toughness, helping Saguaro run for 297 yards. He had scoring runs of 3 and 4 yards.
Quotes of the game
“I wouldn’t say that,” Saguaro coach Jason Mohns said when asked if Saguaro still has a considerable gap over the rest of Arizona in 4A. “We haven’t played (Tucson) Salpointe yet. We haven’t played (Peoria) Sunrise Mountain yet. There’s separation between us and Higley in September. But we’re not where we need to be yet. We’re still very sloppy. We’re still making mistakes. We’re getting better. I told these guys, that’s why we scheduled those last two teams we played.
“We didn’t turn our backs on each other. We kept working. We saw the things that we need to do to get better and that showed tonight.”
“Losing those games were tough,” Massingale said. “But we came back with a big win.”
Stat of the game
Saguaro ran for 297 yards and passed for 235, but it gave up 256 rushing yards.