CHANDLER

Ironwood is one of the top team's on the west side of Phoenix, a playoff caliber team, and Chandler is one of the top team's on the east side of the Valley, a playoff caliber team; so what does this mean? This should be a good test for both schools.

Our challenge - we have quite a few new faces starting for us this season. We will have guys who have never played a down for us, or never really played a down of varsity football on the field. It will be exciting, but we need everyone to stay focused and maintain their composure. Ironwood is a physical team that has a reputation of playing aggressively. That's OK, we are physical team and when push comes to shove, we will find out if we can hold our own.

Our goal is to match their toughness, our goal is to play faster than they do, and our goal is to do whatever we have to do to win. This will be a very good test for us from a mental toughness angle, how will we do? By 10 PM, this Friday, we will know the answer. Playing a team of the caliber of Ironwood is how we will improve. You need to play quality people, if your goal is to become a top-flight program. You don't have much control over your schedule; this is an opportunity for us to take a big step in the correct direction. If we play well on Friday, we can be successful. We are capable of beating them, they are definitely capable of beating us; we have beaten them in the past, and they have beaten us in the past. So, this is a very good opening match up for us. "Let the games begin." GO WOLVES!

Coach Ewan

Head Coach

Chandler High Wolves

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CIENEGA

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS are finally back! We are very excited about this season. We have a fairly young team, but very skilled. This year we opened play against our cross-town division rivals Catalina Foothills. Cienega came out on top of a special teams (punt block, punt return for TD) and passing induced game (11comp/27att/178yards/1TD) (33-14 Cienega). We are very proud of our team. They played very hard all 48 minutes. Though first game jitters were evident we were able to maintain focus and come out on top.

Cienega offense was anchored by the leadership and play of QB Seth Mejias-Brenan (Jr) who completed 11 of 27 passes for 178 yards and a TD. Cienega also carried the ball 22 times for 98 yards lead by Billy Barrazza (Sr) who rushed 10 times for 56 yards. The only rushing TD of the night came from Darrel Connedy (So) on a 4-yard scamper. Cienega defense was led by Greg Taylor (Sr) who had 4 solo tackles, 12 assists, 1 forced fumble, and 1 interception. Special teams was exceptionally well tonight with Derrick Coker (Jr) returning a punt 50 yards for TD, David Abeyta (Jr) recovering a punt block for TD, and Andrew Crow (Jr) knocking through 2 FG's (31yrds, 24yrds).

Next week we face our mid-State rivals, Scottsdale Chaparral. We always look forward to a challenge and expect both sides to bring their "A" game!

A complete view of the game stats can be accessed through our Football website linked above.

Assistant Coach Steeves

Cienega High Football

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FLORENCE

This might be the only time this season that you hear this from me…as a staff, we were very happy after this week's opening season loss at home to Wickenburg. The last two years the Wranglers have throttled us by 30-40 points…although we came up on the losing end of a 34-19 score, we felt good about a few things. For one, we improved a lot from the Show Low scrimmage to the Wickenburg game. Also, we were competitive and able to play with one of the top teams in the state.

The game started out great for Wickenburg, on their first play from scrimmage, their TB, Enrique Bernal took a jetsweep and made some great reads and cuts, he took it to the house to give Wick a 6-0 lead. We were able to drive down running the ball and even the score at 6, with Andy Martinez taking it in the endzone.

Then we pulled ahead, with Martinez running the ball in again, and went up 12-6...Wickenburg evened the score with Drew Vaughn connecting with Paul Wells, who showed that he is going to be one of the top WR's in 3A this season. The two connected again to put Wickenburg up, they also added a FG from Derrick Sievert...Florence came back with a TD pass from Cash Clemans to Forrest Brown, to make the score 21-19 Wickenburg.

The Wranglers put together some time consuming drives and were able to chew up the clock in the 2nd half, but we still had our chances to get back into the game…another TD from Mills and a late INT by Wickenburg sealed the deal. Wick was able to punch it in with FB/LB Kellen Henderson late in the game.

Here are some thoughts and observations from the game and a look at next week: Vaughn, although his numbers don't show it, he played well, and came through when it counted. Wells, will be an all region player, and should put up huge numbers for Wickenburg. He is a tall WR, with good speed and great hands…RB Bernal is a very slippery RB that has decent power so he has the ability to run around or over you. Henderson is a good change of pace RB, who runs downhill and that's it…Their OL was as advertised, very big and physical, they wore on us as the game went on and in the 4th it showed.

As for Florence, our kids came away feeling good about themselves because of their performance against a great team. Our OL played well as did our skill players. QB Clemans was able to run the ball very effectively, WR Martinez ran the ball very well also, and will be more involved in the passing game in the future...RB Larry Anderson ran the ball very hard, and will only get better…WR Al Woods played most of the game hurt and played well while he was out there…WR's James Goodspeed, Brown, and Dalton Gay blocked well all night and ran great routes…The OL that consisted of Mark Krauss, Chase Simon, Brannon Brooks, Devon Torres, and Mickey Tryon played great and will continue to improve…Most of these players also start on defense and as long as we improve, we feel that we should be able to compete in the 3A South…Even though Coolidge, Fountain Hills, and Safford all lost, they will re-group and be ready come region play.

As for next week, we play Estrella Foothills and HC Mike Welch, who is also coming off a loss at Maricopa, so they will be looking to get a win also…They threw the ball all over the place against Maricopa and we expect the same thing on Friday…they have some very good looking skill players as well as a big offensive line. Their defense looks good, and once they settled down in the 2nd half, they shout Maricopa out. It should be another great test for us, and it will be interesting to see how we bounce back after a tough loss.

Thanks, Andy Silvas

Florence Football

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BASHA

The Basha Bears enter their 4th Varsity season in the Arizona 5A Division 1 Central Region. Head Coach Tim McBurney starts his 36th year in coaching high school football in Arizona.

The Bears offense will be a balanced attack lead by QB Troy Graham. The O Line has several senior stand outs including Steve Sabin, John Fontes, Erick Herzick, and Trevor Bingham. The backs are a deep and talented group with halfbacks Dusty Rush, Quinn Evans, and Chris Turas. The fullbacks will be Will Still and Kenny Vella. The wideouts have six playmakers in Rashaad Huggins, Bo Matthewson, Patrick Delgado, Brad Sanders, Stefan Fulse, and AJ Williams. The TE Ryan McBurney is one of the best athletes on the team.

The Bears Defense must work hard to live up to the expectations set by D Coordinator Jim Flannery. The Bears had the best defense in the state last year and now must reload with a new group. Some of the standouts may be LBers Brian Rheault, Ryan McBurney, and Bo Matthewson. The DBs will be solid with CB Rashaad Mason and Quinn Evans along with the safeties Nick Crain and Zach Alger. The best D line coach in the state is Coach Richard Gray and he will have his D line ready to play with Trevor Bingham, Albert Avery, Brandon Cobb, and Quinton Andrews.

The Bears are 1-0 (San Luis had to forfeit Game 1) and are getting ready to play a tough Salpointe Lancer team in Tucson on August 31st at 7:00 pm.

Asst. Coach Collin Bottrill

Basha Bears

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Hamilton vs. Buena Blog

First game jitters are always a part of a high school football season. Hamilton was able to shake off those jitters on their opening kickoff return. Drew Terrell took the kick 98 yards for the score to put the Huskies up by 6 only 12 seconds into the game. Terrell, playing in his first varsity game, had a career night. In addition to his kickoff return, the junior wide receiver had a 77-yard TD run and a TD reception from Gerell Robinson.

Gerell Robinson also had a near perfect evening. The senior quarterback went 4 of 6 for 65 yards including a 19-yard pass to Caleve Deboskie. Robinson also worked well running the option with Covaughn Deboskie on a 50-yard TD run. When Robinson moved to the wide receiver position, he caught a TD pass from QB Justin Peters.

Anthony Cascio had an excellent night for the Huskies as well. He was 6 for 6 on PATs. Every kickoff on the night was a touchback, forcing Buena to travel 80-yards to reach the end zone.

On the defensive side of the football, the Huskies did not give up many yards during the first half. Holding Buena's excellent running back to under 40 yards on 11 carries showed that the Huskies defensive front was doing their jobs. Linebackers Elliott Harper, Zack Moore, and Anthony Jones made the proper adjustments to put the defense in the right position. The secondary was not really tested throughout the evening. Buena completed one pass on the night to their tight end for a 63-yard gain. The defensive unit caused their first safety of the season as well.

The game was called at just two plays into the third quarter due to lightning. The final score was 44-0.

Overall, we were pleased with the performance with our team as a complete unit. All three areas (offense, defense, special teams) had an impact on the game. We will need to have an excellent week of practice and match that intensity and effort against the Brophy Broncos this Thursday to give ourselves an opportunity to win.

Asst. Coach Johnston

Coach Belles

Hamilton High

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Publisher's Note:

We want to thank the coaches for bringing us some great blogs to kick off the season.

We have several teams on board for Blogs during the season.

If you (or an assistant coach) would like to blog this season on The Varsity send us an email to ArizonaVarsity@aol.com. ArizonaVarsity.com is part of the Rivals.com and Yahoo! Sports network, the largest of its kind. A great way to get info out on your program and players - in YOUR own words. All blogs are free content on this site, and are read by thousands from coast-to-coast.