WEEKLY BLOG: 10/25/19

The outcome had long been decided. The scoreboard ticked down to zeroes. Both South Mountain and Carl Hayden joined together at midfield for a group prayer after the ritual handshake line, putting the "union" in the Phoenix Union HS District. Then, following the traditional postgame jumping jacks spelling out S-O-U-T-H, the victors in the Scarlet jerseys and Columbia blue pants returned to the center of the field for a celebration this community hasn't seen in more than a decade.

The South Mountain Jaguars are the 5A Metro Region champions.

To appreciate the previous sentence, you have to know where this school has been. In the five-year period from 2011-2015, South Mountain had a record of 3-47. Mired in the middle of that was a 30-game losing streak.

Prior to the 2016 season, in stepped the Carter brothers, Mark and Marcus. The twin co-head coaches brought the message of CTC - Change the Culture. It's an admirable goal for a new coach entering a tough situation. More often than not, the task becomes unable to achieve. The mountain is not able to be climbed.

But at this mountain, South Mountain, something else happened.

The message got through to the players, who in turn bought into the philosophy of being young men of character. The Jaguars got involved with their South Mountain community, a unique and resilient culture in our state made up of people from different ethnic backgrounds: Whites, Latinos, and Blacks. This inner city team was out to prove people wrong.

"The biggest thing for us was to get the community back," South Mountain co-head coach Mark Carter said. "Once we got the community back, we were able to keep the kids."

The scoreboard people are used to looking at with wins and losses didn't change overnight. The Carters' first team was 1-10 in 2016. The guys on the freshman team then are seniors now. They've learned life lessons, not just on the field but outside of football.

In 2017, the record climbed to 5-5 and it improved again last year to 6-4. A week ago, South achieved its first victory over Fairfax in nine tries giving it the inside track to the region title.

This is what those seniors wanted all along. All the work in the offseason. Practicing at 12:15 a.m. in front of their community on that first day of "official" workouts. They busted their tails to get to this point. So, what did they do from there?

They enjoyed it.

There would be no letdown from the emotional win over Fairfax. The word "perfection" doesn't often get thrown around in the sport of football, but it's hard to argue if there was ever a better first half played anywhere.

In the first 24 minutes against Carl Hayden, the Jaguars had the ball six times. They scored six touchdowns. The defense forced two fumbles and stopped the Falcons on downs twice. On special teams, South Mountain blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown. The scoreboard in the south end zone read 50-0.

Carl Hayden put up a fight in the second half and South Mountain made wholesale substitutions getting some of its younger players into the game, but in the end it was a 64-28 victory for the Jaguars giving the team, students, and community their first region title since 2008.

"It means everything for this community," South Mountain co-head coach Marcus Carter said. "This was something that they needed. The energy and atmosphere reminds them of the old South Mountain."

Getting to the players that made it all happen, sophomore quarterback Amier Boyd took just two plays to get the Jaguars on the scoreboard. Following a 36-yard pass play to Davontae Ingram, sophomore quarterback Amier Boyd hit Travis Gammage with a short pass to the left. It looked like he'd be stopped at about the 5, but the junior broke a couple tackles for an 18-yard touchdown. It was Boyd's 20th of the season.

The South Mountain defense forced a punt on Carl Hayden's first possession and following a block, sophomore Ja'juan Kennedy grabbed the ball on a bounce and returned it for a touchdown.

The train kept rolling as defensive lineman Alberto Martinez recovered a fumble at the Falcon 28-yard line. The next play was a shovel pass to Ingram, who was in motion, then reversed field with an unbelievable run.

Carl Hayden went for it on fourth-and-eight from its own 39 and senior Jaevon Rushing came up with the sack setting the offense up again.

"Defense was locked in from the beginning," Marcus Carter said. "They were flying around and they were just laser-focused."

Ingram caught his second TD of the quarter for his 10th of the season. The guy they call "Money" wasn't expecting the ball there. The initial play was a run, but Boyd checked off on it.

"When I got the ball, I was in shock," Ingram said. "I saw open field and I just took off."

In a unique 29-0 first quarter, all 28 of the Falcons' yards were on the ground and all 112 of the Jaguars' came through the air.

In the second quarter, it was time for K'Rashee Smith to bust loose. The first 1,000-yard rusher for SMHS since 2008 is strong and sometimes dragged tacklers a few extra yards. Smith blasted up the middle twice in the second quarter for touchdowns.

"He means everything to me," Mark Carter said. "The best friend to a young quarterback is a good run game."

You may wonder how co-head coaches work. Marcus coaches the offensive line and is the defensive coordinator. He coaches from up in the press box. Mark runs the offense and is on the field.

The defense continued to shut down a Falcons' offense that rushed for 471 yards a week ago. Jeremiah Price may be 5-6 and 150 pounds, but the junior safety will get low and in the proper position to make tackles.

The defense for South Mountain (6-3 overall, 4-0 5A Metro Region) got the ball back again with a fumble recovery late in the half. There was just 36 seconds remaining, but that was enough time for Boyd to take off on a keeper for a 27-yard run to close out the "perfect" half. The Jags had run just 17 offensive plays.

"We came out prepared and ready," Boyd said. "This whole process to get to this point was to be in a hurry-up offense and get up early."

Boyd, who was 6-of-6 passing (all in the first quarter), did not play in the second half as the Jaguars were able to freely substitute with the large lead.

Carl Hayden (2-7, 2-2) got its run game going in the second half which went in and out of the running clock (used when the margin is 42 points). Junior running back Kevin Yarbough (6-2, 180) went over the 1,000-yard mark for the season and had 164 in the game. The Falcons run the Delaware Wing-T offense and attempted just 2 passes on the night.

Senior Francisco Cruz capped a 75-yard drive with a one-yard run. Then, following a fumble recovery, Cruz found the end zone again from 15 yards out.

"Coaching where we coach, that means the world to us as a staff," Carl Hayden head coach Steven Arenas said of his team's willingness to not quit in the second half. "That's the end result of what we're trying to build."

In the fourth quarter, senior Adrian Nerini brought a kickoff back 75 yards and Yarbough scored on a short run for Carl Hayden Community.

South's two touchdowns in the second half came on long runs by sophomore Jaylen Huckaby.

Ingram caught three passes for 83 yards and had two touchdowns. He was only limited by the lopsided first-half score. The receiver and cornerback is a Division I prospect that holds offers from UNLV, Northern Arizona, South Dakota State, and Sioux Falls. That list could grow larger as Boise State (currently on its bye week) had coaches out to campus on Friday. The Broncos currently have four Arizona HS alums on their roster. He could have gone to other schools (or transferred), but stayed at South Mountain.

"I think this was the best fit for me," Ingram said. "They taught me a lot about life and I could never repay them for that."

Carl Hayden hasn't had a winning season since 1996. However, the Falcons could finish with a record above .500 in the region with a victory in the finale at home in West Phoenix against Camelback next week.

The roster for the Falcons was over 40 at one time this year, but the team had less than 30 suited up as the end nears. Arenas will try to get the kids to believe in themselves and coach them up for one more week of preparation.

"I think that starts on Monday," Arenas said. "The seven seniors that have stuck around, I want to send them out on a good note."

Now, throughout this article, I've avoided the "p-word". That's because this Jaguar squad is unlikely to reach the playoffs within this AIA ranking system. South Mountain stood at 25 last week (22 when you remove three into the Open bracket). With just two games against teams with losing records, the six spots necessary to get into the top 16 will likely be too much to overcome, mathematically. Prior to the 2018 season the AIA conference committees in the 5A and the 6A voted to remove the automatic bids for region winners (4A and below still have them). Perhaps it's time to rethink that. The team that went into Week 10 holding down the final playoff spot was Maricopa. The Rams have a record of 3-5, but are there due to a difficult schedule. Never mind that MHS has lost games to these teams by 31, 34, 47, and 59 points. The system rewards those who play the teams at the top. Oh, one other thing, one of South Mountain's six wins this year came against Maricopa, on the road (33-20) in September.

Now, I'm not saying South Mountain has any better of a shot at beating a top seed in the 5A playoffs than Maricopa, or whatever 4-6 teams ends up there, but I think they deserve to hear their name called on Selection Saturday and have that extra week of the spotlight and preparation.

But, maybe for this team, that's the way things should end. South Mountain goes to Central (2-7) next Friday. Not very many schools get the chance to win their last game and go out on top.

Even after the high from winning the region, the coaches will try to keep them grounded for one more week.

"Focus and finish," Mark Carter said. "We're going to have the same message as last week."

After the season, we'll see what happens with realignment. It's possible some of the competition in the 5A Metro gets dropped down. New region foes and the non-region schedule could bring tougher competition down the road to where a 7-3 record gets the Jaguars in the playoffs for the first time since 2008. Don't think they won't be ready for it. There are reinforcements.

The JV team in each of the last two seasons at South Mountain has finished undefeated.

First Quarter:
SM - Travis Gammage 18 yard pass from Amier Boyd (I'viaughn Russell kick), 11:09
SM - Ja'juan Kennedy 35 yard blocked punt return (Russell kick), 7:54
SM - Devontae Ingram 28 yard pass from Boyd (Russell kick), 6:37
SM - Ingram 19 yard pass from Boyd (two-point conversion good), 1:42
Second Quarter:
SM - K'Rashee Smith 6 yard run (Russell kick), 8:06
SM - Smith 6 yard run (Russell kick), 1:45
SM - Boyd 27 yard run (Russell kick), 0:21
Third Quarter:
CH - Francisco Cruz 1 yard run (Jorge Landeros kick), 4:56
CH - Cruz 15 yard run (Landeros kick), 1:32
SM - Jaylen Huckaby 65 yard run (Russell kick), 0:30
Fourth Quarter:
CH - Adrian Nerini 75 yard kickoff return (Landeros kick), 11:32
CH - Kevin Yarbough 1 yard run (Landeros kick), 4:32
SM - Huckaby 76 yard run (Russell kick), 3:19