Jennifer Jimenez
Special to AZPreps365.com

Round Valley rallies from 15-point deficit to win 2A championship

December 7, 2019 by Jennifer Jimenez, AZPreps365


Round Valley

A come from behind battle ended with Round Valley High School as the new 2A football state champ.

The team defeated Phoenix Christian 34-28 Friday night at Coronado High School in Scottsdale.

Round Valley head coach Marcus Bell and his coaching staff have been to the final four times since 2012, but this was the first time they walked walked off the field as champions.

“It’s been 39 years since we brought home the gold ball. That’s a long time,” Bell said. “This is an amazing group of kids. We started the season and suffered a loss to Show Low and people were writing off the whole season, but we got better every week and this tight knit group of kids did it.”

The Round Valley squad believed.

It was evident, battling back from a 15-point deficit with two minutes left in the third quarter. Senior Marc Irigoyen said the players kept their heads up and didn’t allow the score to do anything but motivate the squad.

Irigoyen finished the game with two touchdowns, including the go-ahead score on a 28-yard run over the top of two Phoenix Christian defenders to pull ahead 34-28. But give Round Valley’s defense and special teams credit for setting up the scoring drive.

Round Valley’s defense forced a punt, which went off a Phoenix Christian player who was pushed back by Round Valley’s Dylan Jordan. That gave Round Valley the ball on the 41-yard-line.

“We knew (linebacker) Man-Man (Freeman) had the outsides covered pretty good, and so we had to start running really quick stuff and up the middle and that worked for us,” Bell said.

Phoenix Christian had one final chance and started from their own 35-yard-line with less than two minutes to play.

With the clock winding down, quarterback Adrian Fleming couldn’t connect with his receivers and turned the ball over on downs. He was banged up after suffering an ankle injury, but finished the game.

“We had a lot of guys playing hurt and that’s how our guys have been all year, just pushing forward, but tonight we just ran out of gas,” Phoenix Christian coach Brian Cole said. “They are a good football team and got the best of us at the end tonight.”

Round Valley quarterback Tayvin Bevell finished the game with two rushing touchdowns and was the difference maker in the win. Phoenix Christian couldn’t stop the run in the second half. Bevell said the team finally got one and it means a lot to do it with brothers who’ve known each other since the days when they tussled around in the kindergarten sandbox.

Freeman finished with two touchdowns, bringing his total to 39 on the season. Howard Russell snagged a pick, as well as two touchdowns in the loss.

“To win tonight after being here so many times and finally win it is just awesome,” Bell said. “You have to give credit to the kids and our great coaching staff who have stayed together for eight years. I am proud of them. Maintaining a coaching staff tenure like this is something you just don’t see in high school football anymore, and their commitment says a lot.”