Here are eight things I learned in Queen Creek’s 36–29 win over visiting Red Mountain, a rematch of the 2019 6A semifinal playoff game.
1. The Bulldogs’ family continued to remember fallen teammate Hunter Vindiola on Homecoming. The Queen Creek players, coaches and athletic staff, collectively, wanted to honor “Vindi” in a special way. All involved did a magnificent job in Hustling for Hunter.
2. A week after he had arguably his best performance to date in a win at Highland, Queen Creek junior running back Payton Barlow was at it again. In my opinion, he is proving to be THE guy opposing coaches must account for when developing their defensive game plans. He ran for 136 yards and three touchdowns, including back-to-back scoring runs of 57 and 56 yards on the Bulldogs’ first two drives. He also recorded seven tackles and had a pick on defense.
3. Red Mountain senior quarterback Evan Svoboda had 47 pass attempts on Friday, both season and career highs. Several of Svoboda’s tosses were of the homerun variety. His previous high for pass attempts was 28 on Oct. 9 versus Liberty. His 291 passing yards are also new season and career highs.
4. Red Mountain senior receiver Anthony Carrington was targeted plenty by Svoboda and he made the most of his opportunities, finishing with five receptions for 136 yards and three touchdowns – 37, 15, and 39 yards. Carrington’s performance on Friday was, by far, his best of the season, especially considering he had only eight catches for 109 yards in three previous games combined.
5. Queen Creek junior quarterback, and USC commit, Devin Brown continues to improve from last season AND week-to-week in 2020. As a sophomore, Brown threw 12 interceptions, including four in a game and at least one in the final three games of the season. So far in 2020, he has thrown only thee picks in six games and none in the Bulldogs’ last three games. Even more impressive is his completion percentage and QB Rating in each of his last three games:
Oct. 23: .696 C%, 110.9 QBR
Oct. 30: .741 C%, 113.7 QBR
Nov. 6: .696 C%, 130.2 QBR
With another year upcoming, working with Queen Creek head coach Joe Germaine and private coach Rudy Carpenter, Brown will be even more polished heading to SoCal.
6. Due to an injury to starter Cavan Riggs, the Queen Creek defensive backfield was forced to make changes, including moving strong safety Hunter Barth, a Cal commit, to cornerback, Krew Jackson, a Kansas State commit, to strong safety and inserting junior Sebastian Tomerlin in the starting lineup. Full disclosure, I was told Tomerlin is arguably one of the Bulldogs best overall athletes when he entered the lineup a couple of weeks ago. I saw for myself last Friday that he is after he recorded a pair of interceptions and broke up a pass in the end zone to end the first half. Just a heads up, I also heard he’s pretty good on the diamond, too.
7. By now I’m used to seeing Queen Creek senior Trey Reynolds, a Utah commit, dominate on defense. And he’s nearly unstoppable in short yardage situations offensively. Against Red Mountain, he showed he’s equally adept at catching the ball, finishing with four receptions for 71 yards and a touchdown. The receptions and yardage are both season and career highs. It’s worth mentioning he had 10 tackles and recovered a fumble too.
8. A total of 16 players – nine from Red Mountain and seven from Queen Creek – caught passes from their respective quarterbacks on Friday. The teams combined for 533 yards through the air. In last season’s playoff game, Red Mountain rushed for 317 yards and passed for 57. On Friday, it was nearly the exact opposite for the Mountains Lions as they passed for 306 and rushed for 54.
Postgame Sound
“It was everyone but also Coach Honea. They set it up and asked us about it; we were all for it. It was big time to see how it turned out and it was really nice.” Queen Creek senior lineman, and Arizona State commit, Isaia Glass on honoring his teammate, Hunter Vindiola.
“What’s not to miss? He was a great kid – funny, athletic, and had a bright future. Obviously, it’s unfortunate what happened, but we all love and miss him.” – Glass
“Obviously, we’re going to enjoy this win, but once Monday comes around we have to forget it and keep working hard for (Mountain Pointe).” – Glass
“It’s fun to play a game where (the opponent) is throwing the ball a lot; it gets us running around. I think our big thing was staying disciplined with our coverages and being where we needed to be.” – Queen Creek senior safety, and Kansas State commit, Krew Jackson on the challenge of defending Red Mountain’s passing attack.
“All the defensive backs, and the defense in general, have been working hard. Sebastian worked hard in practice and when he (got his chance) he fit in perfectly. He was a monster out there.” – Jackson
“It means a lot, especially with these guys. I’ve been working hard and doing the best I can. Wherever they put me I’ll play.” – Queen Creek junior safety Sebastian Tomerlin on his contributions in Friday’s win.
“We miss Hunter a lot. Not only was he a really good football player, but he was such a great kid. The thing I remember most about Hunter is his smile; it was so infectious, and he always had it on. Hopefully, he’s smiling a little bit tonight with the win that we got.” – Queen Creek head coach Joe Germaine
“I’m always happy with the effort our players give. We played hard tonight. I was happy with the way that we started then we lost our edge a little bit, but we fought to get it back. I thought our defense really helped us by giving some short fields to score a few more times on offense.” – Germaine
“Sebastian is as tough as they come and he’s one of our better athletes. We knew since he was freshman what a playmaker he is. He’s such a good baseball player, we didn’t even know if he was going to play [football].” – Germaine
