Huskies knock Lancers from ranks of unbeaten to earn title trip
OPEN PLAYOFF BLOG: 12/5/20
Hamilton's players ran off the field and to the southeast corner of the end zone to celebrate with the band for a final time after their last home game.
Then they got one final message. It came from the stadium's PA announcer.
He provided live play-by-play of Liberty's two-point conversion attempt in overtime against Chandler. Its pass fell incomplete and the Huskies' players instantly knew they would get a rematch with their Arizona Avenue rivals.
Moments earlier, the Huskies earned their first trip to the championship game since 2014 with a convincing 58-14 win over Salpointe Catholic in an Open Division semifinal Saturday night in Chandler.
Hamilton (8-1) will face Chandler (9-0) in the state title game at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12 at Desert Vista HS in Ahwatukee.
On a cool 55-degree night, the Huskies stuck mostly with their ground game as they did the week prior against Corona del Sol. Hamilton dominated both lines of scrimmage, paving the way on offense for 287 yards rushing on 26 carries and five touchdowns. Defensively, the Huskies got to the quarterback for six sacks and also scored two TDs on returns.
"I can't put it into words how hard we've all worked for this," Hamilton linebacker Mo Sarnowski said. "We've worked extremely hard."
Once again, Hamilton went with backup quarterback Roch Cholowsky. The sophomore completed nine of his 13 passes, threw a touchdown pass, and recovered his own fumble for a two-yard rushing score.
Junior Nicco Marchiol, who is a national recruit, was injured two weeks ago against Chandler. He has returned to practice and is day-to-day.
"When Nicco is good, he'll step back in," Hamilton head coach Mike Zdebski said. "He had a really good week of practice. This wasn't the time yet."
Running backs Rodney Clemente and Noah Schmidt each had just over 130 yards of rushing and notched a pair of touchdowns. Clemente gave credit to offensive line coach Mark Tucker's charges.
"Our O-Line is amazing," Clemente said. "Tuck's Tanks. They do super good."
Hamilton showed it wasn't going to take Salpointe lightly after rolling Corona del Sol, 50-0 last week. The Huskies stormed to a 23-0 lead while running just three offensive plays.
Sophomore Cole Martin received the opening kickoff and brought it back to midfield. Cholowsky handed it off to Clemente and senior got around the edge on the left and took it for a touchdown. Following a three-and-out, Martin took the punt back 54 yards on an electrifying return. The Hamilton defense was flying to the football and putting pressure on the quarterback forcing a safety as the Lancers had to punt from the 2-yard line. Then, on the ensuing free kick, Clemente raced 33 yards to the end zone and just like that, Salpointe was in a hole.
Salpointe (7-1) did not play last week as Saguaro had to forfeit its quarterfinal game against the Lancers due to COVID-19 positive tests. Salpointe got back into the contest behind junior quarterback Treyson Bourguet, an Arizona commit. His 44-yard completion to a diving Julian Robles got the Lancers across midfield. A pass interference penalty on fourth down moved the ball into the red zone and SCHS got on the board when Bourguet ran a speed option pitch to senior running back David Cordero. An interception by Antonio Martinez on the visitors' sideline gave the Lancers the ball back and Bourguet didn't hesitate. On the next play, he threw a bomb to junior Elijah Barclay, who wrestled it away from the defender for a touchdown. Just like that, it was 23-14.
Noah Schmidt added a 21-yard TD run late in the second quarter. The Huskies led 30-14 at halftime.
Just like the previous week, Hamilton came out of the locker room and exploded with four touchdowns in the third quarter.
Schmidt had a 48-yard run, which set up a four-yard run where he went in untouched up the middle. Senior Zach Lewis read the quarterback and intercepted a pass, which he brought back for a pick-six.
Sarnowski set the offense up on the very next series with an interception of his own.
Sarnowski has missed most of the last two seasons. He suffered a torn left labrum and then the next season, tore his right ACL (knee). This year, he's been healthy and entered the game with 48 tackles.
"I just saw it straight come to me," Sarnowski said. "I was pretty nervous. Everything slowed down and I took the ball and ran with it."
Cholowsky threw a bullet to Christian Anaya from eight yards out. It was the junior receivers fifth TD of the season.
Finally, Cholowsky closed the scoring and began the running clock near the end of the third quarter with his own scoop and score on a fumbled snap.
For Salpointe, the season's first loss ended a surprise season. Last year's team that pushed Chandler (in this same stadium) in the Open semifinals was mostly gone. Bijan Robinson was in Burnt Orange earlier in the day rushing for 172 yards and three touchdowns in a win for Texas at Kansas State. Lathan Ramson is at Ohio State. Ten of the 2019 team's top tacklers graduated. New coach Eric Rogers came in and had to replace most of the staff.
"I'm pretty damn proud," Rogers said. "These guys were resilient all year. For them to keep it together and have the composure they did, I'm super proud."
Including half-sacks, seven different players got in on the action for Hamilton.
"They're very well coached," Rogers said. "It was hard to get into a rhythm offensively. We have a young offensive line."
In addition to most of the line, Bourguet will return as well as Barclay, a transfer from Mater Dei in Southern California.
With the public schools in Tucson having a delayed start, Salpointe was forced to look to the Valley for opponents during the year. This was the Lancers' third trip to the Phoenix-area this season.
The two private schools, Salpointe and Pusch Ridge (which lost to Yuma Catholic in the 3A semifinals) had to carry the banner for Tucson as Pima County essentially forced the public schools to shut down their season after anywhere from one to four games played for teams.
"I wish all of these guys were playing in Tucson," Rogers said. "We're trying to represent for them. We've shown all year long that you can do it safely and healthy. I hope our community sees that and takes it under consideration. We need to let our kids play sports."
Hamilton will be making its 13th appearance in the state championship game. It's a relatively recent history as the school started in the late '90s and played in its first title game in 2001.
"That's what this school is about," Zdebski, who is in his third year at HHS said. "I'm just happy to continue the tradition that John Wrenn started back in 1998."
The matchup with Chandler is particularly important to Clemente.
He played on the Wolves team that won its fourth straight championship (and the inaugural Open Division one) in 2019. Now, he'll be trying to end a Chandler win streak that is at 35 games.
"This has been the goal since the beginning," Clemente said. "When I came to Hamilton, I was thinking I wanted to see Chandler in the state championship. It's just amazing to finally be here."
First Quarter:
Ham - Rodney Clemente 50 yard run (Matthew Swink kick), 11:39
Ham - Cole martin 54 yard punt return (Swink kick), 9:45
Ham - Safety. Punter stepped on end line of end zone, 5:08
Ham - Clemente 33 yard run (Swink kick), 4:46
Salp - David Cordero 4 yard run (Owen Lynch kick), 0:25
Second Quarter:
Salp - Elijah Barclay 27 yard pass from Treyson Bourguet (Lynch kick), 2:48
Ham - Noah Schmidt 21 yard run (Swink kick), 1:04
Third Quarter:
Ham - Schmidt 4 yard run (Swink kick), 10:09
Ham - Zach Lewis 30 yard interception return (Swink kick), 9:37
Ham - Christian Anaya 8 yard pass from Roch Cholowsky (Swink kick), 6:24
Ham - Cholowsky 2 yard run (Swink kick), 0:16
Fourth Quarter:
No Scoring
