Liberty grabs Open Division title once again
CHAMPIONSHIP BLOG: 12/7/24
The first weekend of December marked the 66th year of the Arizona Interscholastic Association crowning football champions. Mountain America Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University played the host. Here’s a brief rundown of what teams won titles this year.
4A: Mica Mountain 42 Arizona College Prep 13
Mica Mountain took the trip up from Tucson and capped off a perfect season with a 42-13 win over Arizona College Prep. The 4A final matched a pair of schools that didn’t even exist a decade ago. This was just the third full season for Mica Mountain (14-0) and ACP completed its eighth season making the climb from 2A to 4A. In the game, Josiah Thornwell rushed for 182 yards and four touchdowns. A pair of those came in the first quarter, when the Thunderbolts zoomed out to a 21-7 lead. A 53-yard TD pass from Jayden Thoreson to Riley Carson on Mica Mountain’s fourth offensive possession made the score 28-7. It was the first state championship for head coach Pat Nugent, who has coached for 34 years with stops at Cienega, Flowing Wells, and Canyon del Oro.
STAT OF THE GAME: Mica Mountain rushed for 375 yards compared to 132 for the Knights.
The Thunderbolts came in averaging 149 yards per game on the ground. In this one, they controlled the line of scrimmage and averaged 8.1 yards on their 44 carries. That average was helped by a 53-yard run by sophomore Jeremiah Anderson in the fourth quarter on the team’s final drive.
PERSPECTIVE FROM THE COACH: “We were a dominant football team all year long,” Nugent said. “They worked their tails off from last year’s semifinal loss. We’ve got empty trophy cases at Mica Mountain, so there’s going to be a big ole championship trophy in there.”
5A: Desert Edge 28 Cactus 19
A year after a heartbreaking one-point loss in last year’s 5A Conference final, Desert Edge finished the job in 2024. The Scorpions went almost three full quarters without allowing a point (building up a 28-0 lead), and defeated Cactus, 28-19. It was the second meeting between a pair of bitter Desert West Region rivals. The Scorpions struck with a pair of big plays on offense. On the third play of the game, sophomore quarterback Blake Roskopf completed a long pass to Malakai Moala, who took it for an 84-yard score. In the third quarter, Roskopf threw a screen pass to Elijah Sherbin-Fox, who broke a tackle and took it 74 yards for a touchdown. On defense, Joshua Hopphaus recovered a fumble and brought it back 78 yards for a score with just 34 seconds remaining in the half for a 14-0 lead at the break. Desert Edge (10-4) started the season at 1-3.
STAT OF THE GAME: Cactus fumbled five times and lost four of them.
Three of the fumbles occurred in Desert Edge territory. The Cobras ran 41 plays in the first half compared to just 13 for DEHS but wasn’t able to put any points on the scoreboard.
PERSPECTIVE FROM THE COACH: “I’m happy for the kids,” first-year Desert Edge head coach Henri MacArthur said. “They’ve worked really, really hard and they’ve earned it. (After starting 1-3) it shows their resilience when going through adversity.”
6A: Centennial 31 Mountain View 21
Recovering from an 0-4 start, Centennial captured its eighth championship in school history. The Coyotes outscored Mountain View 17-7 in the second half in a 31-21 victory. Centennial had to come from the 14 seed after finishing 3-7 in the regular season and win three straight road games to get to Mountain America Stadium, but they went 4-0 in the bracket. Junior quarterback Kainan Manna completed 17-of-26 passes for 335 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Both came in the first quarter with a 33-yard strike to Nikko Boncore followed by a little flip pass to Brayden Long that went for 80 yards. The seven losses are the most for a state champion in Arizona history (previous record was five).
STAT OF THE GAME: In the second half, Centennial (7-7) had the ball for 17:01 compared to just 6:59 for the Toros.
The Coyotes’ longest drive of the second half was a 10-play, 56-yard one that ended with a 45-yard field goal from Aaron Alvarez.
PERSPECTIVE FROM THE COACH: “Somebody texted me and they said, ‘When you win this game, this championship will be the one that people have learned the most about’,” Centennial head coach Richard Taylor said. “You learn a lot about people when you’re 0-4. All of a sudden, I’m too old to coach, too stupid to coach, the kids are no good. Our kids heard all that. I said, kill the noise, we’re going to win a state championship. The coaches and seniors believed it.”
Open Division: Liberty 35 Basha 17
Liberty made it back-to-back Open Division championships by keeping the offensive pressure on in a 35-17 victory over Basha. The last champ to pull off a repeat was Chandler in 2019-20 in the first two installments of the Open. The Lions trailed twice in the first half before taking the lead for good on the first of three touchdown runs from Dominic Lombardo. In the second half, the Lions held Basha to just one touchdown. The Bears had come in with a streak of eight straight games scoring 30 or more points, and had done so against every Arizona team. Meanwhile, Lombardo’s final TD run in the fourth quarter marked the 12th straight game Liberty (12-1) broke the 30-point barrier.
STAT OF THE GAME: Liberty had 27 first downs in the game compared to just 12 for Basha.
The Lions consistently moved the chains with Lombardo gaining 126 yards on 25 carries and quarterback Hayden Fletcher completing 23-of-32 passes for 251 yards.
PERSPECTIVE FROM THE COACH: “I’m just so proud of these guys,” Liberty head coach Colin Thomas said. “We lost 95 percent of our offensive production from last year. A lot of guys had to step up., Hayden had never started a game before this year. He played amazing. Our defense did a great job against an explosive offense.
