The Lobos football team put the final touches on a perfect 10-0 regular season on Friday night with a 45-20 road win at Sierra Linda High School.
The Lobos racked up over 300 yards in total offense with an efficient night throwing the ball from Jacob LaDuke. The sophomore quarterback completed seven of nine passes for 72 yards with three of those seven completions going for touchdowns. Judd Flake was 1 for 2 for 24 yards passing.
On the ground, the Lobos had 10 different ball carriers see action. Collectively they piled up 235 yards with two scores. Karter Raban carried seven times, gaining 97 yards with a score. Kanton Turley had 54 yards on seven runs. Brenner Green rushed five times for 27, Mason Raban had three for 19. Jacob LaDuke carried four times gaining 21 yards with a score. Five other runners had short gains.
Graham Silverhorn had two catches for 19 yards with both going for touchdowns. Merrick Ulberg also had two receptions for 19 yards. Skip Bawden had one 24-yard reception and Christian Smith had one 22-yard touchdown grab.
Hayydn Nichols led the defensive unit with 12 tackles. Aaden Coor added nine along with an interception, and Andrew Bentley finished with seven. Merrick Ulberg recovered one fumble.
Sam Brown was good on all five of his extra-point attempts but did miss his only field goal attempt.
Now the Lobos turn their attention to the 4A state playoffs, which begin on Friday night. Despite having an unbeaten record, the Lobos are entering the playoffs as the No. 3 overall seed. Due to their strength of schedule both Yuma Catholic and AZ College Prep, both one-loss teams, jumped over them in the final standings.
The third-ranked Lobos will host 14th-ranked Canyon Del Oro on Friday night at 7 p.m. The Dorados are 6-4 this year. They have two common opponents with the Lobos this year. They both defeated Bradshaw Mountain. They lost to East Mark in a low-scoring game 3-12 while the Lobos beat East Mark, also in a low-scoring game 13-10.
Playing at home will be a big advantage for the Lobos. It should be enough to easily advance them to round two where they would host either No. 6 Prescott or No. 11 Vista Grande. That game would also be in Snowflake next Friday.
