4A Football Semifinals

November 22, 2019 by Andy Morales, AZPreps365


(Andy Morales/AZPreps365.com)

Two upsets helped shape the 4A semifinal round with No. 9 Gila Ridge beating No. 1 Sahuaro 28-21 in the quarterfinal round last week and No. 3 Canyon del Oro fell to No. 14 Marcos de Niza 13-7 in the first round at Canyon del Oro. No. 6 Mesquite beat Marcos de Niza 27-26 in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinal round to be played this Friday at two locations.

No. 2 Cactus will face Mesquite at Youngker High School and No. 4 Desert Edge will play Gila Ridge at Buckeye High School. Both games are slated to start at 7 p.m.

Cactus is 10-2 on the year with a 54-8 loss at Salpointe on Sept. 20 and a 35-14 loss at home to Desert Edge on Oct. 11. Sr. QB Conner Cordts leads the Cobras with 2,069 yards passing and 26 touchdowns. Cordts also has 728 yards rushing with 15 TDs. Sr. RB Anthony Flores has 1,048 yards rushing with 12 more TDs. Jr. WR Antonio Pratt has 546 yards receiving with six TDs. Sr. OLB Nate (Doodles) Quinones has 125 tackles with six sacks. So. Justin Holmes also has six sacks. Sr. Nicc Quinones has four interceptions.

Desert Edge is 9-3 on the year with a 68-34 loss at home to Salpointe on Sept. 6, a 48-14 loss to Millennium at home Sept. 13 and a 63-14 loss at home to Saguaro on Oct. 4. So. QB Adryan Lara has 3,412 yards passing and 35 TDs for the Scorpions, So. RB Jeryll Mcintosh has 1,076 yards rushing with 11 TDs, Sr. WR Jihad Marks has 1,442 yards receiving with 16 TDs and Jr. WR Andrew Patterson 1,053 yards receiving with 10 TDs. Jr. LB Myles Hobbs has 93 tackles.

Mesquite is 9-3 on the year with a 64-6 loss to Campo Verde at home on Aug. 30, a 41-39 loss at Seton Catholic on Sept. 27 and a 53-0 loss at Saguaro on Nov. 1. Jr. QB Ty Thompson has 3,334 yards passing with 39 TDs, Sr. RB Chris Hintze has 746 yards rushing with six TDs, Sr. Jordan Wollangk has 908 yards receiving with nine TDs and Sr. WR Jacob Walker has 709 yards rushing with 15 TDs.

Gila Ridge is 11-1 with a 22-19 loss to Cibola at home on Nov. 1. Sr. QB Kaleb Cota has 1,300 yards passing with 11 TDs, Jr. Cassell Wiggins has 936 yards passing with 11 TDs, Sr. RB Renan Duarte has 1,459 yards rushing with 14 TDs, So. WR Jonathan Noriega has 699 yards receiving with nine TDs, Sr. WR Jaden Delorme has 522 yards receiving with eight TDs and Sr. WR David Randle has 467 yards receiving with seven TDs. Sr. LB D'Angelo Jackson has 107 tackles, Sr. DL Wyatt Robinson has 11 sacks and SR. CB Anthony Mejia-Acosta has 12 interceptions. Christopher Torres has six interceptions.