Bijan Robinson breaks 6,000 career rushing yards as Salpointe gets past Casa Grande 59-21

October 12, 2019 by Andy Morales, AZPreps365


Bijan Robinson is the third player in Arizona history to rush for more than 6,000 yards. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

Every touch is a new state record for Bijan Robinson. That’s what it feels like.

Rushing touchdowns, career yards, total touchdowns, 2,000 yards here and 6,000 yards there. It feels like Robinson sets a new state record or breaks an old state record every time he touches the ball, well, because he does.

Robinson rushed for 347 yards on 16 carries to help lead Salpointe past Casa Grande 59-14 Friday night and every step he took was, in fact, a new state record. He came in with 5,927 career rushing yards, which was already a 4A-6A state record, and he started the night with 86 rushing touchdowns – another state record he had set a week before.

Only three players in the history of high school football in Arizona have ever rushed for more than 6,000 yards in a career and Robinson is one of them with 6,274 and counting. Brandon Long, of 3A River Valley, finished his career with 6,750 yards and Casey Jahn, of 2A Northwest Christian, leads everyone with 7,486. It’s an exclusive group.

Robinson is only 1,213 yards away from owning it all and, with three regular season games and at least one playoff game remaining, he has a chance. Not the kind of chance you or I have, he has a Bijan Robinson chance.

He scored six times for the Lancers with runs of 43 yards, 42, 38, 33, 25 and 1 which meant he set a new 4A-6A career record for rushing TDs six times and he finished the night with 92. Jahn finished with 110 and Robinson appears to be ready to own this whole category as well.

Then there’s the career TD mark set by former Saguaro standout Christian Kirk. Kirk finished with 103 career touchdowns and he started the night out with a bit of a cushion over Robinson but Robinson will wake up Saturday morning with 102 career touchdowns. Again, Jahn finished with 112 and Robinson could own this category also.

Career points? Robinson has 614 career points and Kirk finished with 626 to lead the 4A-6A category. Arley McNeil of 1A Patagonia graduated with 688.

Several standouts have rushed for 2,000 yards in two seasons but Robinson is only 527 yards away from rushing for over 2,000 yards three times. No one in the history of Arizona has ever done that.

All those numbers start to move on the page like a difficult math equation but all the variables lead to a 6-0 record for the Lancers and a No. 2 seed in the Open Division while Casa Grande fell to 4-3 on the year, but still inline for an at-large playoff berth in the 4A Conference. Things really don’t get much easier for the Cougars from here with Catalina Foothills, Sahuaro and Canyon del Oro left in the regular season.

Casa Grande QB Angel Flores threw for 152 yards and he rushed for 55 more to help solidify a balanced attack but a 16-yard TD pass to Darrell Penn and a couple of short TD runs from R.J. Keeton and D.J. Johnson couldn’t match the six from Robinson and two TD passes from Jackson Bolin. Bolin threw a 15-yard strike to Lathan Ransom and a 23 yard pass to David Cordero. Senior kicker Dominic Chakraborty rounded out the Lancer scoring with a 44-yard field goal as time expired in the first half.

Salpointe will host Canyon del Oro (7-0) next Friday night in a huge power-point match. The Dorados beat Sahuaro 21-7 Friday night to help maintain a top spot in the 4A Conference. All eyes will be on that game next Friday night.

Casa Grande QB Angel Flores (Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)