Devon Henry
Nearly halfway through September, teams are learning their identity and are building towards success! This week on the Best of the West, we look into some undefeateds and some teams looking to bounce back after week two.
On the Rise
A pair of rising teams in the West Valley face off in a cross-conference battle of schools with eyes on the 5A and 4A crowns. The Thunderbird Titans are growing after a 9-3 season in 2023 that ranked them fifth in the 4A Conference. THS opened their season with wins against Moon Valley and Prescott. They now look to square up against a 1-1 Apollo squad who are coming off a 48-17 loss against Sunnyslope after a 27-20 win on the road against Sunnyside.
2024 Camp complete pic.twitter.com/nObWysqAQd
— Thunderbird Titans Football (@TBirdFB) July 28, 2024
Senior running back, Elijah Little, has led the charge on offense for the Titans. In Thunderbird’s opening games, Little has stomped his way to six TDs from 313 rush yards, eclipsing the century mark in both games. Characterized by head coach, Matthew Nalette, as “lightning in a bottle,” he’s had a massive impact on the team alongside senior QB Andrew Cohill in the backfield. Ryan Kavalami has also been a defensive powerhouse with 21 total tackles, six of which for a loss, and has picked up a pair of fumble recoveries.
After a pair of sunny games for Apollo, the Hawks look forward to their home opener this Friday night. In their opening week against Sunnyside, the passing game shined as quarterback, Sylus Stevenson, dominated. The senior completed 21 of 30 passes for 327 yards and three touchdowns, two of which to fellow senior, Maison Cole. AHS will lean on Jimmy Delk and Deandre Crum on the defensive line to try to slow down Thunderbird’s dynamic run game.
Late night throwing with @xxTreyy ! Nothing better than getting work in under a sky full of fireworks @AHawksfootball @JUSTCHILLY pic.twitter.com/giQhNyG268
— Thomas Williams (@1tommy_williams) July 4, 2024
This battle of west-side foes dates all the way back to 1976 when Thunderbird earned their first of four consecutive victories against Apollo. The rivalry simmered out after an Apollo victory in 2010. These two wouldn’t face off again until last season when Apollo took down Thunderbird 34-13.
Week 3 Bouncebacks
After an immensely impressive season opener with a 49-0 annihilation of Chaparral, the Sandra Day O’Connor Eagles were brought back to Earth last week against defending Open Division Champions, Liberty, in a 46-0 loss. The Eagles look to bounce back on the road against a Cactus Cobra team who witnessed a similar opening pair of games. CHS walloped Sunnyslope 52-24 to open the season but fell on the road to 4A powerhouse, Snowflake, 31-14.
https://twitter.com/CHSCobraFB/status/1825318795176513760
Since their transfer to the 5A Conference in 2022, Cactus has been a solid competitor in a talent-filled conference. Regardless of last week’s outcome, Cactus junior QB, Antonio Casias, has been solid through two games with 392 pass yards and six TDs on top of another pair of touchdowns while on the run. Tayejion Player has been a solid unit offensively for the CHS offense with 90 rush yards in their win against Sunnyslope and another 120 yards in the loss against Snowflake. Senior defensive end, Talon Staggs, has been a disruptor on defense with 11 tackles, 2 TFL, a sack, and a fumble recovery to open the season.
After being in the Open Division Playoffs two seasons ago, 6A Conference competitor SDO is in search of a run to get them back into the Open Division. SDO senior running back, Bentley Corbin went on a tear to open the season against Chaparral, racking up 212 rush yards to make four house calls for the Eagles, all in the first half. While the run game was stunted against Liberty, Corbin, and sophomore back Jeremy Adeyanju still had bright spots even though they were unable to break into the endzone.
A massive bright spot for @oc_football on Friday night was a wicked 4th & 14 fake punt as @JacksonReader1 sent a laser down the middle and @Peyton_Rough climbed the ladder to bring it down! pic.twitter.com/Ln2hu4rKRM
— Devon Henry (@devonhenry77) September 8, 2024
This will be just the fourth meeting between O’Connor and Cactus. The Cobras earned solid wins against SDO in 2007 and 2008 but couldn’t slow down a powerful 6A version of the Eagles last season as O’Connor earned a dominating 55-21 victory.
A Matchup Older Than Your Grandparents
In Week One of 1928, the Glendale Cardinals and Buckeye Union Hawks faced off for the first time. It’s the first recorded game for Glendale and one of the first games for Buckeye. Nearly 100 years later, the two are back on the gridiron again as 1-1 teams coming off of week two wins. Even with such a historic first matchup, this is just the 32nd all-time meeting and just the third in a row with BUHS claiming wins the past two years.
A 41-0 loss to Arcadia didn’t stop the Cardinals from a bounce-back win last week against Rio Rico and now play in their home opener against Buckeye Union. Glendale’s sophomore quarterback, Michael Anguiano, has thrown the ball like a madman, converting 33 of 57 passes in an average of 14 yards per completion. Anguiano has racked up 460 pass yards through two games with two touchdowns but has also thrown three INTs. Senior, Dominic Owens and junior, Santiago Navarrette have been his favorite targets with 130 or more receiving yards each. Senior defensive lineman, Michael Woods, has been the leader of the defense so far with 35 tackles and two fumble causes.
Notebook from Week 2 ✌️
📝 @wyatthorton_2 – Best in class
🤌 East vs West
1️⃣ First year coaches succeeding
🔜@DezmenRoebuck rewriting records
➕ Morehttps://t.co/ci2upUCLAt pic.twitter.com/dofW7keUqh— Jordan Spurgeon (@spurge_) September 7, 2024
While Buckeye Union has not input stats from this season, they hit the road to battle Glendale after a 29-19 win against sister school, Youngker, to go 15-0 all-time against the Roughriders. They hope to grow from last year’s impressive 7-3 season that had them ranked 9th in the 4A Conference.
Be sure to head out and support your local teams this Friday night! Also, keep watch at Sports360AZ for all of our high school football content including Bleacher Talk, Zone Read, AZ Audibles, Recruiting Roundup, and more.
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