It was Byron Murphy's first half and Stone Matthews second half Saturday night that provided the impetus for another Saguaro High football title.

Byron Murphy haunted his former team to the tune of 112 yards receiving and two TDs the first 24 minutes and Matthews piled up two-third of his yardage for the night in the second half  as Saguaro came back from deficits twice to defeat Marcos de Niza, 38-20, for its third consecutive championship in the Division II title game title at Arizona Stadium.

Saguaro (12-2) notched the school's ninth footballl title overall and eighth  in the last 10 years  in a pot pourrri of membership in divisons/conference. All have taken place in the last 20 years. Marcos de Niza (12-3) saw its second appearance in a championship game (the other in 2009) fall short, but not after giving the Sabercats all they could handle until early in the fourth period. 

Saguaro's balance on offense has made them extremely tough to stop and with an 18-14 lead at halftime, coach Jason Mohns and staff decided focusing more with the run was the recipe to nab another title.

"Stone progressed a ton and the O-line progressed as the season moved on," Mohns said. "They meshed and we were more comfortable with that as a result."

Matthews, a junior,  did most of the grunt work on all three second-half scorig drives and his 7-yard TD run with 3:34 to play sealed the win. His performance Saturday enabled hiim to crack the 2,000-yard mark for the season. He finishes with 2,155 yards and 24 rushing TDs.

"The coaches said they wanted us to control the clock, run the ball and get physical," an emotional Matthews said.

That the Sabercats did. Matthews rushed for 210 of his career-high 291 yards in the second half and it helped accomplish the goals th coaches set out for the second half.

"It's great to see a kid who is 5-7 and 180 pounds dominate a game playing with Division I players," Mohns said. 

Saguaro needed its standout wide out Murphy, and the senior responded with his damage coming in the first half. Murphy turned a short, first-down reception late in the first period into a 64-yard TD with 1:09 left in the first period to put Saguaro on the board, albeit down at 7-6. Murphy added a 3-yard TD reception  with 1:50 left before intermission to put Saguaro ahead to stay, 18-14. The Sabercats took that lead to the locker room. 

Marcos de Niza, having never won a state title in a history covering more than 40 years, was the underdog despite being the higher seed. The Padres took leads of 7-0  (Nazareth Greer to Marcus Naisant 13-yard TD pass) and 14-12 in the first half with most of its success from its running game. Their last lead of 14-12 was courtesy of a 46-yard touchdown run by Shaun Richards. 

Saguaro scored first in the second half with quarterback Kare Lyles tossing his third scoring pass, this one 38 yards to Julian Carter for a 25-14 lead. Lyles added a fourth TD pass in the final period to Jared Poplawski. For the game Lyles completed 18 of 28 attempts for 256 yards. Saguaro totaled 565 yards for the night.

Marcos de Niza still had hope late in the third period when a six-play, 80 yard drive (all via the ground) produced a 12-yard TD run by Zyayre Moss cut Saguaro's lead to 25-20 at the 1:47 mark.

Saguaro moved the ball efficiently on its next possession and finished off the drive with the Lyles-Poplawski connection. Saguaro's defense  pitched a shutout in the final quarter while the offense did its usual job.

"The size difference ultimately hurt us," Marcos de Niza coach Sean Morin said. "Teams with a big offensive line and a good running back (Saguaro) are tough to beat."

Marcos de Niza rushed for 239 yards, led by Avery Sanders' 139 and Richards 83. The Padres just couldn't muster the sustained success on offense Saguaro displayed, particlularly in the second half.