The postseason is officially spreading across the state of Arizona! As the small schools near the glory of their state championship games, the big schools kickoff playoff action this Thursday night.
Time to dig in to this week’s Best in the West featuring games across 3A, 4A, and 5A this Veterans Day Thursday!
Game of the Week: #9 Raymond S. Kellis @ #8 Millennium
A pair of West Valley schools pair up in the 5A Conference in an 8 vs. 9 matchup. The Millennium Tigers seek to improve on their quarterfinal appearance from one year ago while The R.S. Kellis Cougars are making their first postseason appearance since 2016.
Millennium enters the state tournament full of hunger after ending the season with a nail-biting 12-7 loss to Cactus. A 6-4 record in 2023 doesn’t reflect the talent of this team with all of their losses coming against three of 5A’s top four ranked teams, Horizon, Desert Edge, Cactus, and even 6A’s sixth-seeded Perry.
Senior night!!! 33 seniors proud of this group. pic.twitter.com/eZJ0U1qygD
— Millennium Football (@MillenniumFB) November 3, 2023
With an extremely competitive schedule this season, the defense has stepped up in dire times behind senior, Ezra Edmond. To go alongside his 58 total tackles, the defensive end leads the Tigers with 32 solo tackles, three tackles for loss, and seven sacks. Meanwhile, MHS has played offense by committee with five different players finding the endzone at least four times this year. No one has crossed the goal line more than junior running back, Tayejion Player, with 546 rush yards and five touchdowns. Plus, receiver, Jalen Dupree, leads the way with 739 all-purpose yards.
After being 5-5 and ranked 33rd one season ago, to becoming a 9-1 team with the #9 seed, RSK has a lot to hold their heads high about and enter this matchup with confidence. This Millennium squad will be far and away the most competitive team they’ve seen all season, though.
With their best record since 2016, the RSK Cougars have a shot to make it to the quarterfinals for the first time in program history. Junior quarterback, Ronald Coty III, has only attempted 109 passes this season for 736 yards but has been a trailblazer on the ground with over 1,000 rushing yards converted into 17 touchdowns. The offense runs through Coty III but senior running back Jeremiah McClaren is more than capable of carrying the ball as well. Meanwhile, Bryce Bacon has been the juggernaut on defense. The senior OLB has racked up a whopping 92 total tackles and 15 tackles for loss alongside his 5.5 sacks. And make sure you keep an eye on the Energizer Bunny of the defense, Junior Chavez, who has snagged five interceptions and earned two of the Cougars’ six blocked field goals this season.
Parade Ready!!!#CC#MTC pic.twitter.com/ZNTcZvNXSM
— Cougars Football (@KellisFootball) October 25, 2023
The winner of this game is rewarded with the challenge of facing either the 16-seed, Ironwood Ridge, or more likely, the defending champions, #1 Higley, next Friday night. This will be just the third all-time meeting between Kellis and Millennium with both meetings won by MHS in 2011 and 2012.
#6 Morenci @ #3 Paradise Honors
The most underrated story in Arizona high school football might just have to be the absolute absurdity going on in Surprise with the Paradise Honors Panthers.
Senior quarterback, Gage Baker leads the nation in passing this season with 3,923 yards and can surpass 10,000 career passing yards this Thursday with just 353 yards (his average this season is 392 pass yards per game by the way). On top of that, senior receiver, Isaiah Thomas, has been able to collect 1,287 pass yards for 20 touchdowns during Baker’s ridiculous stretch this season. Thomas has also been making a difference on special teams with his four kickoff returns for TDs, a punt return score, and six two-point conversion catches.
Great game last night in our 1st round playoff win!! Couldn’t do it without everyone in the team!! Here are three highlight plays!!
Stats: Rec-7 Yards-194 TDs-4@PHHS_Panthers @CoachPerrone @coachjgoodloe @thechasespear pic.twitter.com/SLFqtEX62B— Joshua Morales (@JoshuaM2594) November 5, 2023
Baker completed 22 of his 25 passes for 571 yards and a ridiculous nine touchdowns in their 64-23 quarterfinal victory last week against #14 Gilbert Christian. But the Panthers are capable of scoring in all three phases with four touchdowns by the defense this season. Seniors, Bode Joncas and Jalen Cox, have anchored the defense combining for 158 total tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, and 15 sacks. Add that to the team’s 12 interceptions and eight fumble recoveries, you have a force to be reckoned with.
This is the first all-time meeting between Paradise Honors and Morenci. The victor will battle in the semifinals between either #7 Thatcher or #2 Valley Christian next Saturday night at Mesa High School.
#12 Bradshaw Mountian @ #5 Thunderbird
For the second consecutive year, the Thunderbird Titans are in the postseason after being absent from the playoffs since 2013. And not only that, they are contenders for the 4A Conference crown. The Titans matched last year’s 8-2 regular season record which is the best conclusion to a regular season for THS since 2003.
Thunderbird made the 4A Conference recognize their presence after upsetting #3 Marcos de Niza in the first round of the 2022 playoffs but failed to make a Cinderella run as a 14-seed after a quarterfinal loss to Canyon Del Oro. This year, the Titans are coming off a statement 27-20 win against #6 Northwest Christian and a 29-0 blowout of St. Mary’s as they await a visit from #12 Bradshaw Mountain on Thursday.
Week 8, The MTN creates caves. #76@CoachCamps5 @CoachNaletteTHS @TBirdFB @PrepRedzoneAZ @gridironarizona @JUSTCHILLY @Sports360AZ pic.twitter.com/bYudXrZgiO
— Micah “The MTN” Fonsica (@MicahFonsica) October 22, 2023
Elijah Little has been a Tasmanian Devil to opposing defenses. The junior running back is averaging 143 rush yards this season and has burst into the endzone on 20 occasions this year. And as if that wasn’t difficult enough to cover, senior rusher, Tyler Woods is tacking on another 71 rush yards per game and has seven TDs of his own. Don’t forget that junior quarterback, Andrew Cohill can sling the ball too. While he has only thrown for 12 touchdowns, he has only thrown three interceptions on his way to 1,419 pass yards this year. Senior, Travis Woods, has been a tackling machine with 81 total tackles and 14 TFL. If you manage to avoid Woods, you have to watch out for senior Brian Costa, who has swiped five interceptions this year and converted that into 130 yards.
The winner of this game will move on to the quarterfinals against either #4 Arcadia or #13 Coconino. This is Thunderbird’s fourth all-time meeting against Bradshaw Mountain. These teams last met in 2015 in a 38-13 BMHS win but Thunderbird claimed victory in their meetings in 1997 and 1998.
Be sure to head out and support your local teams this Thursday night as we head into Veterans Day Weekend! Also, keep watch at Sports360AZ for all of our high school football content including Bleacher Talk, Zone Read, AZ Audibles, Recruiting Roundup, and more.
Join the conversation on Twitter using #FridayNight360AZ and follow @Sports360AZ to keep up with the action from across the state on Friday nights!
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Devon Henry
Arizona native, Devon Henry, joined the Sports360AZ crew in 2018 after graduating from Arizona State's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism & Mass Communication. Devon has avidly partaken in coverage of the Arizona high school sports scene since 2013 and has covered NASCAR and INDYCAR at Phoenix Raceway since 2017. Devon is also a play-by-play announcer, calling over a dozen different sports and hundreds of events.