Nathan Grijalva finished with 113 yards rushing. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

 

The new playoff rules have magnified the importance of every game in the 5A Conference this year. Teams can no longer use non-region games to prepare for the battles associated with regional play, knowing a region championship will mean an automatic playoff berth. Those days are over, only the top 16 teams in the conference will make the state playoffs.

In years past, a 4-6 record could theoretically get a team in the playoffs if all four victories came in region play but no more. Week One is just as important as Week Ten and Ironwood Ridge took an important step towards a playoff berth thanks to a 42-14 win over Mountain View Marana Thursday night.

Ironwood Ridge (1-0) plays in the 5A Southern Region and Mountain View (0-1) is in the 5A Sonoran and the teams will not meet again this year unless the two find themselves facing each other in the playoffs. If that rematch happens, both sides know the outcome could be entirely different.

“They are going to get better so we need to get better,” Ironwood Ridge head coach Matt Johnson said to his team after the game. “You never know if we will see them again.”

The two teams came in with known unknowns. The Nighthawks were going to go with Octavio Audry-Cobos under center and Nathan Grijalva was going to carry the ball and the Mountain Lions had Hayden Parson directing their offense with Calib McRae moving into a leadership role at the receiver spot. Audry-Cobos and McRae were monsters on defense last year, Grijalva was the second option and Parson is only a sophomore. It was a game within itself to see which combination would get off to a quicker start.

Grijalva finished with 113 yards rushing and Audry-Cobos had 114 yards of combined offense and the two were the only ones to touch the ball in the Nighthawks’ opening drive, a 78-yard scoring drive that ended with a 2-yard run from Grijalva with 6:04 left in the first.

Nathan Grijalva caps off 78 yard drive to put @irhsfbbooster up 7-0 6:04 in first pic.twitter.com/HeULv8t9pj

— Andy Morales (@AndyMorales8) August 17, 2018

Mountain View struggled early but a 26-play drive tied the game up 7-7 with 9:12 left in the second quarter thanks to a 1-yard run from Parson. But the Nighthawks started to take control and Audry-Cobos hit Antonio Villanueva from 6-yards out to put Ironwood Ridge up 14-7 with 4:49 left in the half and Max Vernon took an interception back 25 yards to give the Nighthawks a 20-7 lead (kick failed) with 37 seconds left.

A series of punts dominated the third quarter but Andrew Cook ripped off a 73-yard run to put Ironwood Ridge up 28-7with 10:11 left in the game. Audry-Cobos ran in the 2-point conversion.

Mountain View started to click again and Parson connected with Varney Larson from 37 yards out to cut the lead down to 28-14 with 7:01 left but, in a flash, Audry-Cobos bit Cook on a 46-yard play to put Ironwood Ridge up 35-14 29 seconds later.

Audry-Cobos had a grand total of 104 all-purpose yards last year but he was sixth on the team with 42 tackles. Still, he says Johnson saw something in him. Johnson is a master at rebuilding and Audry-Cobos is the latest building block.

“It’s different because I’m not used to being the leader,” Audry-Cobos said. “I’m not a big talker but I like motivation our line. They gave us huge holes and we couldn’t miss them.”

As for moving from defense to quarterback, Audry-Cobos said he asked last year.

“At the end of the year, I knew I had a shot at being our QB,” Audry-Cobos added. “I mentioned it but I guess the coaches had me in mind.”

The Nighthawks added a late TD on a 30-yard strike from Fabian Figueroa to Isaiah Olalde with 42 seconds left for the 42-14 final but, as lopsided as the score was, the offensive output from both teams was a much closer margin thanks to explosive offense provided by Parson and McRae.

Parson threw for 232 yards, Larson pulled in 101 yards and McRae finished with 94. McRae only had 173 yards receiving over 11 games last year but his natural abilities and clutch hands were evident. Perhaps it’s in his genes.

“Our young guys battled but we, unfortunately, let this game get away from us,” McRae said. “We have a bye week to work with and we will get better.”

McRae’s father, Clarence “Bam” McRae, played at Pueblo and Arizona Western before joining Mike Stoops as a tight end at Arizona.

“My motto is to catch everything thrown to me,” the younger McRae added. “I want to be the leader that everyone looks up to.”

Mountain View gets next week off but Higley comes to town on Aug. 31. The Knights finished 11-2 last year with one of those losses coming in overtime to the powerful Saguaro program in the 4A semifinal round. The Nighthawks also have a week off before hosting Millennium on Aug. 31. The Tigers finished 4-6 last year.

Hayden Parson (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)