Round Valley and Tempe Prep are used to playing one another in November, not Labor Day weekend. But even though the stakes weren't as high as a playoff game, they still managed to deliver an entertaining regular season bout with a tinge of playoff fervor.

Round Valley opened the second half with a quick-strike touchdown -- led by quarterbck Kyron Woolf and running back Sullivan Udall -- to take the lead for good and go on for a 24-13 victory over the Knights in a 2A game at Mesa Community College.

Round Valley and Tempe Prep have played three times in postseason the last four year with Round Valley winning two of the three. Defense and hard-hitting have been characteristic. The same was pretty much true in this one.

Trailing 13-12 at halftime, thanks mainly to a Tempe Prep interception and possessing the ball just four plays in the first period, Round Valley opted to go with its vaunted ground game to seize control from the get-go of the second half.

The Elks marched 66 yards in five plays following the second-half kickoff to take an 18-13 lead. Woolf, who threw two touchdowns passes and two picks in the second quarter, opened the dirve with a 13-yard run. Two plays later Udall broke off a 44-yard gain and two plays after that burroughed in from the 1 for the score with 10:10 left in the third period.

Udall had the big night on the ground rushing for 140 yards on 14 carries -- 103 of those yards came in the second half. Woolf was 4-for-12 passing for 70 yards . His scoring passes were 23 yards to Dylan Workman and 25 yards to Bryson Brown. The latter was a great throw under duress on fourth down. Workman's 53-yard kickoff return essentially set up Round Valley's first TD and he was rewarded with the TD reception a few plays later.

Round Valley's defense took that cue and blanked Tempe Prep in the second half. The Elks (2-0) gave up 151 yards in the first half, but only 80 yards after intermission. Tempe Prep scored its first touchdown after an interception return by Liam Collins set it up at the Round Valley 5.

With 1:03 left in the first half, Tempe Prep took the lead to halftime, 13-12, on a 61-yard march -- 49 of it through the air. That was its lone sustained drive of the game. Tempe Prep owned a 10-minute to 2-minute edge in time of possession in the first period. But it went for naught as it failed to score on its opening drive when an interception ended the possession inside the Round Valley 10 with 4:33 left in the first period.

Round Valley's second of three interceptions of Tempe Prep quarterback Max Rich, set up the final score of the game with 1:39 left in the third. The Elks Braiden Eisenlord made the pick at midifled. Six plays later, running back Braden Brown rambled 27 yards to paydirt. 

Tempe Prep (1-1) gradually moved to the Round Valley 20, but gave up the ball on downs there with 8:48 to go. One more interception (this one by Rhett Bingham) stopped Tempe Prep just inside Round Valley territory.

Tempe Prep's offense was buoyed by its passing game, a departure from normal. Rich was 16-of-32 for 173 yards and one TD -- an 11-yarder to Herman Flores that that gave the Knights' their 13-12 lead at the half. Tempe Prep rushed for only 55 yards -- 42 in the first quarter.