Scottsdale Saguaro’s three-year championship reign atop Class 4A Division I ended Friday night with a 28-6 loss to Tucson Sabino in the state semifinals at Phoenix Paradise Valley High School.
While the third-seeded Sabercats from Saguaro can look back with pride at the consecutive state titles they won in 2006, 2007 and 2008, the seventh-seeded Sabercats from Sabino are looking ahead to next Saturday night, when they will line up against Tucson Canyon del Oro in the 2009 Class 4A-I championship game at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.
“We’re playing our best football of the year right now and so is CDO, so it should make for a great state championship game,” Sabino head coach Jay Campos said.
The title game will be a rematch of the closely-contested regular-season finale that took place at Canyon del Oro on Nov. 6, when the Dorados defeated the Sabercats 34-21.
“We really wanted a second shot at them,” said Sabino running back Keanu Nelson. “We’re going to get it.”
Nelson, who rushed for 127 yards and three touchdowns in the Sabercats’ regular-season matchup against CDO, turned in another series of highlight-reel plays on Friday night against Saguaro. On offense, the 5-11, 170-pound senior rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries and he caught five passes for 94 yards and a TD. Nelson intercepted two passes on defense and made an additional impact on special teams, pinning Saguaro back on its 4-yard line with a 57-yard punt.
Sabino (11-2) also got 187 yards rushing from senior running back Stephen Fraser and 129 yards passing from junior quarterback Nathan Brooks. Fraser ran for a 65-yard touchdown, while Brooks completed 6 of 11 passes and threw for TDs of 35 and 49 yards.
“We knew they were going to have trouble with our guys because of their speed, and once we got those guys out in the open field they obviously made some pretty big gains for us,” Campos said. “We’re just really proud of the fact that our line blocked as hard as they could against a really big, oversized defensive line for Saguaro and we found a way to get in the end zone.”
The Saguaro offense, meanwhile, moved the ball consistently but was unable to capitalize on several scoring opportunities. Saguaro (10-3) advanced into Sabino territory on all four of its first-half possessions but came away with no points.
“They have a potent offense,” Campos said about Saguaro. “We just tried to keep them as under control as we possibly could. And we did that. We didn’t allow the big play tonight. They got some big gains, but not into the end zone.”
Junior quarterback Teddy Ruben rushed for 139 yards on 15 attempts for Saguaro, while junior running back Danny Clark gained 114 yards on 13 carries. Saguaro did not score, however, until Clark crossed the goal line on a 2-yard run to close the Scottsdale team’s deficit to 21-6 with 9:05 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“The biggest thing is that we wanted to keep them from scoring and make them work for every single yard that they got,” Sabino’s Campos said. “And that’s what we did. It really helped us out. We knew we were going to score our points. We just wanted to keep them off the board as much as possible.”
Sabino grabbed a 7-0 lead when Brooks completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Mike Brown with 4:57 left in the first quarter.
On Sabino’s next possession, Fraser took a pitchout from Brooks and sprinted down the left sideline for a 65-yard TD.
Nelson caught a screen pass from Brooks and turned it into a 49-yard scoring play with 4:05 remaining in the third quarter.
Following Saguaro’s lone touchdown, Sabino answered with an 84-yard drive that was highlighted by runs of 45 and 25 yards by Fraser and culminated with a 2-yard jaunt by Nelson.
The touchdown by Nelson put the game out of reach at 28-6 with 5:03 left, punching Sabino’s ticket to next Saturday’s championship clash against undefeated and top-seeded Canyon del Oro.
“I’ve never been happier in my life,” Fraser said during the postgame celebration.
Saguaro won the first of its three consecutive state titles by defeating Sabino 41-21 in the 2006 championship game. Sabino’s Campos said the 2006 loss to Saguaro provided motivation for his team this week.
“A lot of these guys were freshmen when we played in ’06,” Campos said. “We were devastated after that game. We thought for sure we were going to win it, and we didn’t. So our guys knew about that. We talked a lot about that this week. We wanted more than anything to end their streak of three state championships.”
* Also on Friday at Paradise Valley in Class 4A-II, Glendale Cactus defeated Tucson Palo Verde.
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