Canyon del Oro’s Kayden Luke is tackled by Casa Grande’s Kevin White Jr. during the first half Friday night. Casa Grande stayed unbeaten with a convincing 28-6 win over the Dorados.

 Rebecca Sasnett, Arizona Daily Star

Canyon del Oro made it tough on Casa Grande at times, but in the end, that’s all it could do.

The Cougars (8-0), led by star quarterback Angel Flores, methodically diced up the Dorados (5-4) in the 28-6 victory Friday. Without any more additions to the schedule, Casa Grande only needs a win over Pueblo, which lost 47-0 to CDO earlier this season, to finish the regular season undefeated.

Meanwhile, with CDO having its five-game win streak halted, its final game, against Sahuaro on Nov. 12, could decide its postseason fate.

β€œWe have a different taste in our mouth now,” CDO coach Dustin Peace said. β€œBefore, we were a little unsure about who we were. Now, we’re frustrated with our own performance. And that just builds hunger for our team. I’m excited about that. ... That we want more.”

Against Sahuaro, or perhaps beyond, CDO will need more support from its offense.

Casa Grande’s Demetrius Garrett carries three CDO defenders into the end zone during the first half Friday.

The Dorados recovered two fumbles in the second half but didn’t score until running back Kayden Luke punched in a 2-yard touchdown run with 3:28 left. Luke and the rest of the CDO rushing attack struggled to get anything going against Casa Grande’s big defensive line, led by 6-foot-5, 225-pound defensive end Alex Ybarra.

The junior spent most of the night in the Dorado backfield, disrupting the normally-explosive tailback sweep plays and harassing CDO quarterback Caden Dawes each time he dropped back.

β€œWe needed to get the running game going in order to be successful, and I think we got some glimpses of that,” Peace said. β€œBut they still did a great job up front. So even though we were getting some yardage, it wasn’t that big play, that big chunk, to get us on the other side of the field to break things open.”

On the other side, Flores enjoyed a clean pocket for most of the night.

Canyon del Oro's Caden Dawes throws during the first half of the Dorados' loss Friday.

That was partly due to how CDO chose to defend. Seemingly trying to avoid a big play, the Dorado secondary played off the ball and for the most part kept the passing game contained. But while Flores had just three passes go for 15 or more yards, he feasted on short throws, finishing 18 of 23 for 203 yards with one touchdown pass. He also bruised his way to 84 rushing yards on 12 carries with a rushing touchdown.

Casa Grande running back RJ Keeton also had a big night, rushing for 117 yards on 17 carries with two touchdowns, the last of which came with just three seconds left in the game. The 28-6 score supports the notion that Casa Grande is one of the top teams in the state, but coach Jake Barro doesn’t know if it will be enough to get into the Open Division Tournament.

The Cougars entered the game ranked No. 5 in Class 4A but not even listed among the top 16 teams in the Open rankings. Coach Jake Barro believes the strength of schedule may be too much to overcome.

β€œA lot of the teams down here in Tucson aren’t any good, so that’s going to hurt us,” Barro said. β€œBut we’ll see. If we can get in, we can get in. We’d love to be there. We won the region. Nobody around here can hang with us, especially these guys.”

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