Finn Garrison is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Notre Dame Prep High School.

The 1-1 Notre Dame Prep Saints will battle the 1-2 Brophy College Prep Broncos in the second Holy Bowl at 7 p.m. on Friday at Central High School.

This is a relatively new rivalry between the two teams, with their first matchup occurring last year with Notre Dame Prep winning 28-10.

Notre Dame Prep’s quarterback Braden Wells said of Brophy, “They’ve got strong people on both sides of the ball but especially their defense. They’ve got [defensive lineman Zac] Swanson they’ve got [defensive back Ben] Morrison … It's tough to plan around but we’ll be ready.” 

After Brophy’s 49-0 win over St. Mary’s High School, they lost their next two games and allowed over 500 offensive yards against No. 8 Basha, according to MaxPreps. 

Brophy’s heavy passing offense, led by quarterback Elijah Warner, hope to bounce back from two consecutive losses and start the scoring early and often through the air. Between the last two games against Mountain Pointe and Basha, Warner threw the ball 62 percent of the time. Notre Dame Prep’s head coach George Prelock expects to see more run plays from Brophy to help create a more balanced offense.

“They always game plan and more than likely we’re probably going to see a little more run as well,” said Prelock. “They got talented kids over there, Warner is a good quarterback, and they got great receivers, and good offensive line and a pretty good tight end over there.” 

In Notre Dame Prep’s first two games, their offense balanced between the run and pass and relied on two playmakers to rack up yards and put points on the board. In their 21-14 loss against Verrado, Notre Dame Prep ran the ball 17 times and passed the ball 25 times.

In their 30-28 win over Corona del Sol, Notre Dame Prep ran the ball more often than not. In 51 total offense plays, senior running back Andrew Vines ran the ball for 91 yards on 29 attempts and scored 3 touchdowns. Vines currently leads the 5A San Tan conference in offensive scoring with 26 points because of his ability to play both running back and kicker.

“Andrew is such a sound football player, he’s able to read his gaps, he’s able to follow the linemen, and he’s a really good learner when it comes to learning the plays and knowing where to go,” said Wells about his teammate.

Brophy is averaging 28 points per game so Notre Dame Prep’s defense will look to get stops by pressuring Warner with junior defensive end Ben Roberts (15 tackles, 3 sacks) and forcing Brophy to lean on their three running backs who share carries. 

“We plan differently depending on the week. Different packages, to try and help us plan for different offenses. … So, it will be a lot different this week to play  more of a back constructed defense to try and take down their throwing,” said linebacker Brock Narveson.

Fans can tune in to the live stream from YurView Arizona.