After barely missing out on last year's playoffs, Walden Grove toughened 2023 schedule

Walden Grove’s high school football team has turned last season’s pain into a rallying cry.

In 2022, the Red Wolves missed the state tournament despite going 8-2 overall and a perfect 5-0 in Class 4A Gila Region play. They ended the season on a seven-game winning streak.

They missed the playoffs by .27 points, in terms of how the Arizona Interscholastic Association ranks teams for tournament entry and seeding purposes.

“Last year it was positive for us,” WG senior quarterback Gabriel Smith said. “I’ll say that because now we have a chip on our shoulder, we go by our motto of ‘.27,’ so we’re kinda just keep on trying to roll it.”

WG’s only losses last year were at Canyon del Oro — the Dorados lost in overtime in the state semifinals — and Chandler Arizona College Prep, which made the playoffs despite going 5-5.

Sahuarita’s 0-10 record, Amphitheater’s 2-8 and Sahuaro’s 5-5 hurt how the Gila Region’s more successful teams stood when it came to playoff positioning. Meanwhile, the other Tucson Area region, 4A Kino, had four of six teams finish with winning records; last-place Empire went 3-7 compared to the Gila region’s last-place team, Sahuarita, which went winless.

“That’s a feeling we don’t want and something we focused on to make sure it didn’t happen again,” WG head coach Corey Noble said.

So although they’re in the Kino Region this year with CDO and Mica Mountain both at 4-0 and Pueblo at 3-1, Walden Grove loaded up its “freedom” games (think nonconference games in college sports) by matching up with a pair of 4-0 Phoenix-area teams, plus traditionally strong 5A Southern Arizona teams in Cienega, Desert View and Mountain View.

“This schedule that we have with all these good teams, it’s not an accident,” Noble said. “We didn’t want what happened to us last year, where last year we were in a really weak region.

“And no disrespect to those teams, but playing those teams that weren’t competitive didn’t allow us to get into the playoffs and as good of a season as it was,” he added. “It was a great season (but) these kids all remember what that felt like on that Saturday morning.”

On the flipside, Walden Grove is just 1-2 so far this season. However, the Red Wolves opened 2023 with a 38-26 loss at Phoenix Northwest Christian and a 34-28 loss to Phoenix Arcadia.

Just as important: both of those teams are currently 4-0.

Noble said the first two games were productive because they showed that his team is close to some really good teams.

The Red Wolves bounced back last Friday, defeating Cienega 26-7 at home.

“We played two really, really good teams; I mean we played three really, really good teams,” Noble said. “I think Cienega is a damn good team.

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“We played two really good teams those first two weeks and made a few too many mistakes to win.”

The game was important to Cienega, too. After starting the season with a 49-8 loss to Mesa Desert Ridge, Cienega beat Phoenix Paradise Valley 30-17 and Tucson High 28-24, but with the loss to WG, the Bobcats dropped to 2-2.

“This was a huge win, especially starting out 0-2,” said junior receiver Eli White, who scored an 18-yard touchdown. “Coming back was huge for us.”

Walden Grove jumped out to a 13-0 lead against the visiting Bobcats, and after getting outscored 7-6 in the second quarter, neither team scored in the third. WG scored a touchdown late to secure the win.

“I thought it was an outstanding win,” Noble said. “The team played hard. We started really strong, came out, jumped on them early, played really well, and then I feel like we kinda lost focus in the second quarter there.

“(We) slowed down, did some uncharacteristic things, made some bad plays that didn’t allow us to extend it there and then we really took control there in the third quarter and into the fourth and finished the game.”

Smith was 16 for 28 for 234 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

Last year, Walden started the season 1-2 before it went on that win streak, ultimately finishing No. 17 and missing out on the 16-team 4A state tournament.

Could another streak be in the works?

“We like competition. We want competition, no matter what,” Smith said. “Those first two games they were tough state contending teams but we fought to the end.”

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Photos: Cienega falls at Walden Grove 26-7, high school football