Cody Cameron is in his second year with ArizonaVarsity, and he brings a unique mix of playing, broadcasting and analytical experience to the team. Follow him on Twitter HERE, and make sure to Follow Arizona Varsity on:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Last Friday I headed to the West Valley to watch a pair of undefeated teams, Salpointe Catholic and Desert Edge, square off in a 4A match-up. Salpointe’s Senior standout RB Bijan Robinson looked like a runaway freight train as his 430 yard, 6 TD performance broke school records for most rushing yards and rushing TDs in a game. When I talked to Robinson after the game, the humble superstar gave all the credit to his offensive line. “Our offensive line has been getting doubted,” said Robinson in our post-game interview. “People saying they’re not good enough or we’re too small, too young. They came out here with a fire and we obviously saw tonight what they bring to the table.” The Lancers dominated in every phase of Friday night’s contest as they steamrolled Desert Edge 68-34 moving them to 2-0 on the season.

Jackson Sumlin is a big playmaker at the tight end position, and he’s also a very good blocker. Sumlin buried a couple Desert Edge players into the dirt on two run plays. He took a quick TE screen in the first quarter to the house as he jetted down the left sideline, outrunning the Desert Edge defense. “It was a simple TE delayed screen,” Sumlin said. “Before the play they (The offensive line) told me that they got me. When I caught it I saw that they had brought all their linebackers so I knew it was perfect.”

Jonah Miller is an absolute mountain. The Lancer Junior OL cleared paths Friday night big enough for three RBs to run through. Even for his size, Miller can run really well as he was consistently back-side pulling and leading the way for his RBs. “I think it’s the best feeling when you pancake someone, you look behind you and see that hole, and see you Bijan running 40 yards again,” said Miller in our post-game interview. “It’s the best feeling ever because it makes our job easy and we try to make his job easier.”

Charlie Raetzman did a phenomenal job of staying back and playing the deep ball when Desert Edge looked to air it out. The Senior DB snagged two interceptions on the night, including one that was tipped into the end zone as time expired in the first half. Raetzman displayed great footwork coming up to make a couple plays as well. “Our defense is really good in coverage,” said Raetzman. “We just came out and performed tonight. I have a great group of guys behind me.”

Jihad Marks is an absolute stud. Marks caught literally everything Friday night including a deep ball where he jumped over a Lancer DB to snag the ball at its highest point. Marks is a great route runner with nice break away speed. Marks finished the night with a hat trick of TDs and now has 5 receiving TDs on the year.

The thing that impressed me the most about Adryan Lara Friday night was how elusive the Sophomore QB was in the pocket. Lara did a great job of escaping pressure and keeping his eyes downfield finding the open receiver. The young gun-slinger also tossed 4 TDs on the night. This young man will continue to get better every week and I can’t wait to see him develop over the next couple seasons.

I have no doubt in my mind that Gavin will be one of the best linemen in the entire state come his Senior season. The young OG possesses great strength and power, and he’s always finishing his blocks until the whistles blows. Gavin plays with a sort of nastiness that you see a lot of our Class of ’20 Power 5 OL commits play with.

Salpointe Catholic has played in back-to-back 4A State Championship games. They have also lost to Saguaro three years in a row in the State play-offs. I know those players and coaches are not looking past anybody on their schedule, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t. I don’t see them losing to anybody the rest of the way. The big question mark is where will the Lancers land come play-off time? With the new play-off formula will the Lancers have enough points to make the Super 8 or will they be awarded the #1 seed in the 4A bracket? All I know is this: This Salpointe team is very physical up front. They might have the best RB to ever play in the state of Arizona. They have one of the hardest hitting safeties in the state in Lathan Ransom. They have a very athletic group of linebackers, and they are extremely well-coached. I really think this Salpointe team is better than the previous two, and I think if they do find themselves in the Super 8 come play-off time, they are definitely not a team to look past.

This might have been a little gut check for this young Desert Edge team. No time to feel bad for them as the Scorpions still have Millennium, Peoria, Saguaro, and Cactus all on their schedule. I think this tough schedule will only benefit this young roster. I said last year that I thought this Desert Edge program had one of the brightest futures out of all the teams in the state. This team has so many Class of ’21 and ’22 players starting and/or playing a significant amount of playing time. Coach Lucero and his staff do a tremendous job of getting his players focused and ready to go every week. Excited to see how this team progresses and gets better over the season.

Miller is an explosive back who showed a lot of toughness Friday night. He’s a running back who has the speed to turn the edge but who is also not afraid to run in between the tackles. He plowed his way into the end zone for a touchdown in the third quarter.

“The biggest thing is that we’re a family,” said Lancer Senior OL Bruno Fina. “We love each other, we’ve been grinding all Summer in 110-degree heat during conditioning and lifting weights. We’re just really starting to mesh together. We get each other and we know each other. We’re working on just understanding everything and things are really just starting to come together.”

(2-0) Salpointe Catholic BYE

(2-0) Millennium @ (2-1) Desert Edge