High school roundup: Lancers hang on in 5A quarters; Desert View's best-ever season ends

Salpointe Catholic High School quarterback Treyson Bourguet dodged defenders, trying to bleed out the remaining clock so Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep wouldn’t get one final shot.

As he was finally swarmed, he tossed the ball to the ref and looked up at the scoreboard. Salpointe wouldn’t have to run a fourth-down play. He had done just enough.

That was the mantra on a chaotic 45-42 quarterfinal win Friday. The No. 2-seed Lancers (10-2) are into the Class 5A state semifinals; they’ll host No. 3-seeded Goodyear Desert Edge (10-2) for a chance to play for the trophy.

With Desert View, Cienega and Canyon del Oro falling in the state quarterfinals Friday, Salpointe is the last Tucson-area team left playing this season.

This despite second-half fireworks that turned a comfortable win into a shootout.

“It was like the Matterhorn, one of those rollercoasters that’s just up and down and around and around,” Lancers coach Eric Rogers said. “We knew this was going to be a four-quarter battle. We prepared for that all week and our kids just stepped up and made big plays when we needed them.”

Notre Dame Prep senior Gavin Smith deserves the credit for that.

After Salpointe jumped ahead 31-7, he answered with a 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. When Bourguet scored his fifth touchdown of the night on a 21-yard run, Smith answered right back with a 59-yard touchdown grab. The speedy receiver, headed to University of Arizona as a walk-on, nearly landed the trifecta, with well over 100 yards in the return game, 106 receiving yards and 96 rushing yards.

“The speed, the elusiveness, they create plays for him and move him all over the field,” Rogers said. “It’s very hard to defend against him. I went over and told him after the game, what a football player that guy is. There’s no question about it.”

Bourguet had three touchdowns by the end of the first half. He connected with 6-foot-4 Dylan Dreis on a 32-yard score with 1:44 left before intermission, but they weren’t done. On third-and-15 from the 50, Bourguet heaved the ball towards Dreis, who made a diving grab in the end zone to put Salpointe up 24-7 going into the locker room.

But the real difference-maker proved once again to be running back Anthony Wilhite. Bottled up all game, just two of his 20 carries that went for more than eight yards but they made all the difference.

He scored Salpointe’s final touchdown on an 89-yard run up the middle with 6:55 left. Then, he brushed aside safety Tommy Romano and dodged linebacker Jaden Scarpone to pick up the final first down, ensuring Salpointe a spot in the semifinals.

— John McKelvey

Desert View’s best-ever season ends in quarters

GOODYEAR — A couple of failed fourth downs might have changed the way the game went but as it was, Desert View’s historic season ended on Friday night.

The No. 6-seeded Jaguars, who won 10 games for the first time in school history, had a hard time getting their offense going and fell to third-seeded Goodyear Desert Edge 31-13 in the 5A quarterfinals.

Desert View couldn’t convert late in the first half, allowing Desert Edge to score before halftime and then were stopped on fourth-and-goal at the 5 in the second half when a touchdown would have turned the game into a one-score deficit.

“The play was good, it was a just a good effort,” Desert View coach Robert Bonillas said of the fourth-down play with 2:40 left in second quarter and the Jaguars down 13-7. “Had it gone our way then we are not talking about being down by two scores.”

The Scorpions (10-2) — whose only losses this year have been to to No. 1 Scottsdale Horizon and Glendale Cactus, who was the fourth seed in the Open Division — advance to the semifinals to play at Salpointe.

“I think we just made a few more mistakes than the other team, we could have capitalized a little bit better,” Desert View quarterback Oscar Barraza said.

Despite a slow start, Desert View (10-2) had a chance to turn the game around late in the first half after dodging a bullet as Desert Edge missed a 32-yard field goal attempt. But the Jaguars failed to convert a fourth-and-4, Oscar Barraza’s pass going incomplete, intended for Jah-Li Govan. Desert Edge used the short field to score before halftime, regaining momentum and taking a 19-7 lead at intermission.

“I don’t regret anything we did, I think there was a little bit of miscommunication with me and the receivers,” Barraza said. “That’s it.”

The Jaguars’ only other loss this year was to Salpointe, the second seed in 5A. Desert View had not had a home playoff game in two decades before last week’s win over another Goodyear school, 11th-seeded Millennium.

“Just a great group of kids that worked together to the end, we just fell short of the goal,” Bonillas said.

— Al Bravo

Extra points

Skyler Partridge threw for 251 yards and three touchdowns and rushed five times for 89 yards as top-seeded Scottsdale Horizon eliminated ninth-seeded Cienega in the 5A state quarterfinals, 45-21. Cienega took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, when quarterback Brayden Cherry found CJ Hangartner for a 49-yard touchdown. The Bobcats then surrendered 35 consecutive points. Cienega finishes its season 8-4.

Canyon del Oro took a two-touchdown lead in the first quarter before Glendale rallied, and the fourth-seeded Cardinals eliminated the 12th-seeded Dorados 38-27 in the 4A state quarterfinals. Kayden Luke led CDO on the ground, rushing 20 times for 183 yards and three touchdowns. Caden Dawes completed 11 of 16 passes for 161 yards. CDO ends its season 7-5.