Salpointe held on to beat Mountain Point 35-26 at home Friday night in a game where big leads for the Lancers were never safe and deficits were never too large for the Pride to overcome. Mountain Pointe more than lived up to their nickname and, if not for a miss on an extra point in the final moments, overtime was a strong possibility with constant momentum shifts.

Mountain Pointe came in ranked No. 16 in the 6A Conference, and the team is now 5-3 on the year, but the Pride’s playoff position is strengthened by the current list of five teams vacating the top of the 6A ranks to help make up the field of the Open Division. Likewise, Salpointe (7-1) is ranked No. 12 in the 6A Conference but that translates to a home game under the playoff format with a possible top eight position, but all that math took a backseat to what was happening on the field.

Salpointe head coach Eric Rogers talked at length about the first half after the game and he pointed out the two plays that could have made a difference and did make a difference for Mountain Pointe.

“We talked to the team at the half,” Rogers said. “Mountain Pointe literally had the first play of the game and the last play of the first half. Those were the only two plays that they had in the half.”

The first play was explosive with Christian Clark breaking away for a 65-yard run for the Pride but the team failed to move from there and head coach Eric Lauer called for a kick, but Luis Cordova blocked the field goal try and Thomas Regina picked up the ball and he scampered some 95 yards to put the Lancers up 7-0 with 8:40 left in the first quarter. That block and score changed momentum to the Lancers and a short run from Orlando Gonzalez put Salpointe up 14-0 with 4:05 left in the quarter and Salpointe quarterback Taylor Nagore ran the ball in from two yards out to make it 21-0 with 3:59 left in the half.

Nathan Spivey came up with his fifth interception of the year for the Lancers on the next drive and Salpointe was on the verge of putting the game away with time running down in the half but Ray Pruitt came up with an interception for Mountain Pointe and he went on to score some 88 yards later to cut the lead down to 21-7 as time expired in the half. The last play of the half was truly a game changer.

“I like that we didn't give up and we came out and did some good things like the score right before the half,” Lauer said. “But we have to be able to put four quarters together. I was watching earlier in the week and I felt we were hanging onto last week's win a little bit too long, we failed to really transition to the next team.”

The Pride beat Corona del Sol 38-13 to put the team back on track after a 28-0 loss to ALA Queen Creek the week before but the Lancers also had strong emotions coming in after a 49-0 loss at Liberty. In the end, it’s a play here and a play there that makes a difference.

“The last play of the half was supposed to go to the corner of the end zone so some of our decision making was an issue,” Rogers added. “Either our guy catches it or no one catches it but it let them right back in the game. We were physical, we were hitting them. We were wrapping up and we were tackling. We were doing all the things that are necessary to put ourselves in that position to be up 21 and then it kind of just unraveled right there before the half and then we had to calm ourselves down.”

Mountain Pointe came out of the half and drove down field to the 5 yard line but the Pride had to settle for a field goal from Francisco Orduno to cut the Salpointe lead down to 21-10 with 5:57 left in the third. The Lancer defense stopped a touchdown at that point but a possible 28-0 lead was suddenly just 21-10 and then Robert Knorr hit Zeke Rodriguez from 41 yards out and the Salpointe lead was down to just 21-17 with 1:29 left in the third quarter.

Mountain Pointe needed one more stop to take the game over but the Lancers responded to the situation quickly with Richard Rivera ripping off a 44-yard run to set up a 32-yard scoring run from Jaxon Banhie to make it 28-17 Salpointe with 4.3 seconds left in the third. Dinos Drossos put the Lancers up 35-17 with 10:54 left on an interception return and it looked like everything the Pride was able to accomplish was erased.

“It’s my fault,” Lauer added on not being able to take the game over when the Lancers were on the ropes. “When you're not all the way ready, it's those little things that cause you to stub your toe and the game turns you away and then their guys play hard and you're going get their next shot.”

The Lancers got off the ropes and it looked like the Pride was trapped in the corner for the final few rounds but Orduno cut the Lancer lead down to 35-20 on another field goal after another drive stalled with 7:28 left and then Knorr hit Clark for 38 yards on the next drive to set up a 12-yard pass to Rylon Dillard-Allen to cut the Salpointe lead down to 35-26 with a missed extra point with 2:58 left. The missed kick meant the Prode would need two scores and that became an almost impossible task and it changed the game plan.

“Maybe it didn't have to be that way, we could have played a full four quarters,” Lauer added. “Maybe we're down to the last play of the game or something like that, which we thought it was going to be.”

The Pride defense did cause a turnover on downs in the final minute or so but a sack from Elijah Rushing shut the door.

“We put our defense in a hole a couple of times by just not getting things going offensively but we're getting there,” Rogers added. I see us putting things together. I told the kids we still haven't put four quarters together. You know if we can put four quarters together. I think we could be pretty dangerous.”

Things don’t get much easier for Salpointe with the final two regular season games taking place on the road with a trip to No. 9 Saguaro (4-4) scheduled for next week and a stop at No. 10 Brophy (6-2) following after that. Mountain Pointe will host Brophy next Friday night before traveling to play Desert Vista (2-6).