The Lobos are the defending 3A state champs and as a result of their dominating semi-final win over Valley Christian on Saturday afternoon, they will now have a chance to repeat as the 3A state champions.
Snowflake’s defense got the job done, and their offense was stellar in the second half, but it was the Lobos special teams that earned this win for a chance at a repeat.
The Lobo defense held the Trojans on downs, ending their first possession on a fourth down play. Snowflake’s opening drive resulted in a 41-yard field goal by Sam Crockett putting the Lobos on top 3-0 with 5:23 left in the first.
Valley Christian quickly showed why they were a top-three seed in the bracket by scoring on an 85-yard touchdown strike, getting on top of the Lobos 7-3 with 4:32 left in the quarter.
Snowflake’s next drive ended on downs, then the Trojans put together a 15-play drive and appeared to be in a position to extend their lead when Rhett Wengert picked off a Valley Christian pass at Snowflake’s five-yard line, returning it out to the Lobo 26. Snowflake’s offense went three and out giving the Trojans the ball back and they put together a five-play scoring drive when ended in a 41-yard field goal, giving Valley Christian a 10-3 lead which held up until halftime.
Snowflake’s offense put together a six-play drive resulting with Crockett’s second field goal of the game, but Snowflake still trailed 10-6 with 7:47 left in the third.
At this point, the game quickly turned in Snowflake’s favor. After Valley Christian was held to a three and out following Crockett’s field goal, the fourth down snap on the punt play sailed over the punter’s head and was recovered in the endzone by Braden Lewis for a Lobo touchdown, giving Snowflake the lead at 13-10 with 6:57 left in the third.
The Lobos got on the board again when Caden Cantrell connected with Noah Baum from 11 yards out pushing the lead to 20-10.
The ensuing kickoff bounced in Snowflake’s favor and was recovered by the Lobos. giving them the ball back. On the next play Cantrell again found Baum, this time from 20 yards out and in a span of seven seconds on the clock the Lobos had scored twice and seized control of the game with a 27-10 lead.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Cantrell found Jett McCray for another score extending the lead to 34-10, with Crockett’s point after kick.
The next Snowflake possession also resulted in points when McCray capped an 84-yard scoring drive with a 24-yard run, making the lead 41-10.
Jace LeSueur intercepted a final Trojan pass setting up Crockett’s 23-yard field goal which ended the scoring with Snowflake advancing to the title game with a 44-10 victory.
Snowflake will face Yuma Catholic in a rematch of last years’ title game. The fourth seeded Shamrocks upset number one seed ALA Gilbert North in the other semi-final round by a final of 31-26 on Saturday evening. Last year the Lobos prevailed in this match-up. They were aided by Yuma Catholic’s stellar quarterback getting injured early in the contest.
This time it is Cantrell who may be banged up as he suffered an ankle injury late in the semi-final game. If he can go, this should be a match-up of two great teams led by two outstanding quarterbacks.
The championship game will be played at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening at Campo Verde High School.
