Win four state championships in a row.

Only two coaches in the history of Arizona football completed that task prior to the arrival of Jason Mohns (61-7) and his Saguaro Sabercats (14-0): Rick Smith led Flagstaff to four straight championships in the early 1980s and Paul Moro led Blue Ridge to four straight a decade later. Mohns joined that elite group on Saturday thanks to a 42-14 win over Catalina Foothills (11-3) in the 4A Conference championship game held at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.

 

JASON MOHNS FILE

State Championships

2013: D-III (Saguaro)

2014: D-III (Saguaro)

2015: D-II (Saguaro)

2016: 4A (Saguaro)

 

The final score may indicate a lopsided affair but Mohns had to defeat another legend in Jeff Scurran (296 career wins) in order to get it done. Scurran coached in his eighth championship game of his career on Saturday and he owns three championship rings himself. Oh, and he just happened to resurrect two teams he inherited from 0-10 seasons to a final appearance.

We couldn't have asked for a better coaching matchup.

"It was a great year and I just thanked my players for what they accomplished," Scurran said as he reflected on the dream season completed by the Falcons. "They are great competitors and I'm grateful for the year they gave me."

One of those players is his standout quarterback Rhett Rodriguez. The son of University of Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez, Rhett has "football in his blood" as his father described.

"He watches 10 hours of film a week and he will one day be a great coach," Rodriguez said on his son. "But, taking football out of it, he has made me proud as a dad for the kind of person he has become. He has always been mature for his age and he's a people person. The perfect people person and the perfect son."

Even when the game was out of hand, Rodriguez kept competing. Known for playing almost mistake free, Rodriguez moved the Falcons up the field several times and cashed in on two running scores including his final TD with 3:15 left in the game with much of the Sabercat starters still on the field.

"As long as we are playing we are going to play," Rodriguez explained. "We went from 0-10 before I got here and we were the laughing stock of Tucson and here we are just four years later. We came up short but here we are."

Rodriguez will sign on to play for the Wildcats next year. He finished the game with 105 yards passing and 72 yards rushing. As a team, the Falcons finished with 278 yards of total offense compared to 327 by Saguaro. The Falcons also controlled the clock with 32 minutes of possession to only 16 for Sabercats.

The only stat that matters is the final score and Saguaro proved early on they were prepared to win that battle.

Jacob Christofferson returned a punt 57 yards to set the Sabercats up at the 2-yard line and Stone Matthews cashed in on the next play to make it 7-0 with 9:37 left in the first.Matthews would go on and score three TDs on 111 yards rushing to put him over the 2,000-yard mark for the second year in a row.

Junior QB Max Massingale threw for 123 yards and two TDs to solidify his position in the Sabercat history books. He hit Christofferson for one TD and Zach Wilson for another.

"It was a long goal for us but we made it happen," Massingale said. "It started back in January and it was month-to-month and we grinded it out. We played a great team that deserved to be here. Today wasn't their day but we worked hard for this."

Christofferson also ran a punt back for a TD, giving him 104 return yards on the day.

Only 35, Mohns can do some serious damage to the record books but his immediate concern will be a visit to Disneyland with his young family but he still gave time on his reflection on this team.

"I'm really feeling proud for my seniors. We obviously have a great collection of talent but they gave me no struggles this year," Mohns said.

"We never knew who it was going to be each week and that was part of our balanced attack. My assistants need to get some credit also. They built the relationships with the players and built the buy-in."

 

JEFF SCURRAN FILE

State Championships

1990: 4A Sabino

1992: 4A Sabino

1998: 4A Sabino

 

State Runner-ups

1997: 4A Sabino

1999: 5A Sabino

2008: 4A-II Santa Rita

2009: 4A-II Santa Rita

2016: 4A Catalina Foothills