Normally if a team only has the ball for a 1 minute and 23 seconds in a quarter it was not  very productive for that 12 minutes.

Except if that school is Saguaro High. The Sabercats ran only nine plays in the second period Friday night, but scored 28 points in the stanza and that led the Sabercats to a 42-13 victory over Queen Creek in a 4A-I semifinal game at Paradise Valley High School.

 Saguaro (11-2) advances to the Dec. 4 title game against defending champion Canyon del Oro, which rallied late to beat Cienega, 28-24, to earn the other spot. Game time for the 4A-I title game Dec. 4 is 3 p.m. at Sun Devil Stadium. Queen Creek finished its first year under coach Joe Germaine with a 10-3 record.

Saguaro, which edged Queen Creek, 31-28, just three weeks ago, showed the explosiveness that has allowed it to average 50 points a game this season. Junior running back D.J. Foster scored three first-half touchdowns and after he was finished quarterback Teddy Ruben ran for one and passed for another as Saguaro snapped a 7-7 first-quarter tie with authority in the second period.

"We did a great job up front putting a hat on a hat," Saguaro coach John Sanders said. "I wouldn't trade them (Teddy and D.J) for anyone."

Saguaro, which rushed for 334 yards in the game,  took the opening kickoff  and marched 72 yards in six plays to take a 7-0 lead just 1:39 into the contest. Foster carried four times on the drive for 61 yards, capping it with a 39-yard run.

Queen Creek, which overcame a blocked punt deep in its territory after its first possession and held Saguaro on downs at the Queen Creek 15, followed that up with the kind of drive the Bulldogs schemed for on the night. - a 13-play 85-yard march. Bulldogs quarterback Adam Brzeczek finished it off with the first of his two short TD runs to tie the game at 7 with 47 seconds left in the first period.

Queen Creek even had its top weapon in the rematch, running back Chim Nga. Nga rushed for 69 yards in the first half, but left late in that half with a leg injury and did not return. With Saguaro's offense in high gear, it didn't seem to matter.

The nightmarish second quarter squelched Queen Creek's title-game hopes, which would have the school's first trip to a final since 1998 when it reached the 2A title game.

Foster, who finished the first half with eight carries for 126 yards, scored from 2 yards out after Ruben ran 36 yards to set up the score just 13 seconds deep in the period.

Queen Creek tried to duplicate another lengthy time-consuming drive to even the score, but the Bulldogs failed to convert a fourth-and-one at the Saguaro 42.

The Sabercats pounced on the opportunity.  Two plays later Foster rambled 53 yards for his third TD and a 21-7 Saguaro lead.

The next Saguaro drive was even shorter following a Queen Creek punt. Ruben took a first-down carry and zig-zagged his way 77 yards to paydirt to make it 28-7 with 1:21 left before halftime. Ruben rushed five times for 128 yards in the first half.

So confident was Saguaro that it could score again, the Sabercats called time with 16 seconds left and the ball on the Bulldogs 45. Sure enough, two Ruben passes later, Saguaro had extended the lead to 35-7 on a 11-yard pass to Vincent Silva with one second left before intermission.

"We played a lot better on offense the last time," Germaine said. "I didn't put our kids in a postiion to be successful and I take responsibility for that.

"Saguaro is extremely talented on offense. They've done this to a lot of other teams. But I was proud of how we fought, showed character in the second half."

 

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