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Basha must rally to get past No. 5 Blue Devils
TOM DILLON
Tucson Citizen
CHANDLER - Chandler Basha coach Tim McBurney has been
coaching high school football teams for more than 30 years.
So he wasn't eager to compare his team's 42-28 upset
win over Sunnyside to some of the big wins he experienced while at Tempe
High School.
"We beat three No. 1 teams while I was at Tempe," he
said after last night's game. "What we did this week was try to prepare
this team the same way we prepared those Tempe teams."
It worked. Basha (2-1) stormed back from a 14-point,
third-quarter deficit and topped the No. 5 team in the state.
Basha could have thrown in the towel at the 6:45 mark
of the third quarter. Mike Smith had just scored on a 17-yard run to put
Sunnyside in front 21-7, and Basha faced third-and-11 at its own 19.
But quarterback Shane McBurney scrambled and threw a
79-yard pass to Matt Hibbert, then scored two plays later to cut the
lead to 21-14.
Sunnyside's Jovan Stevenson returned the ensuing
kickoff 59 yards, giving quarterback Sammy Olivas a great opportunity to
recapture the momentum.
Olivas stepped up with a 10-yard touchdown run four plays later, putting Sunnyside (1-2) up 28-14.
McBurney responded in a big way. His 83-yard strike to
Hibbert for a touchdown on the next play brought Basha within 28-21 and
ignited the defense, which would shut down Sunnyside for the rest of
the game and set up two scores in the fourth as Basha completed the
rally.
Basha's Kodi Otero sacked Olivas twice and forced a
fumble that was returned to the Sunnyside 1-yard line in the fourth.
McBurney finished 13 of 21 for 307 yards and three touchdowns.
Olivas threw for one touchdown and rushed for another
for Sunnyside. Mike Smith rushed for 105 yards on 18 carries with one
touchdown.
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