Coyotes' offense runs wild in second half to foil Devils

GLENDALE — As Peoria Centennial High School's football team celebrated a Class 5A-II state championship that was just minutes old, Sunnyside's players and coaches trudged off the University of Phoenix Stadium turf.
 

Heads bowed, eyes bleary with tears, the Blue Devils didn't get a chance to admire the sparkling new facility or their NFL-style locker room following a 34-0 loss.
 

They barely had a chance to console each other before heading home.
 

Not that it mattered.
 

Sunnyside, the plucky team that never gets routed, experienced a new feeling in Glendale on Saturday night: Shock.
 

"I don't know what happened," Sunnyside coach Richard Sanchez said. "Our kids just kind of got in the tank. (Centennial) kept making plays and ours stopped making plays."
 

Sunnyside tailback Jovan Stevenson couldn't offer much insight after the team's worst loss since 1995.
 

"They came to play, and we didn't," he said. "They beat us, mentally and physically."
 

Maybe, but that was just in the second half.
 

For the first 24 minutes, the Blue Devils (11-3) played even with the Coyotes, trading long drives and defensive stops in front of a few thousand fans at the Arizona Cardinals' new stadium. Centennial, the state's highest-scoring team, went into the locker room nursing a 7-0 lead but harboring some serious doubts.
 

Minutes later, however, the Coyotes emerged a different team.
 

Centennial received to start the second half and, after three plays put them in Sunnyside territory, quarterback Scott Burgett hit receiver Jarrell Barbour on a 30-yard touchdown pass.
 

Centennial took to the air again after forcing Sunnyside to go three-and-out.
 

Burgett hit Warren Johnson on a 62-yard touchdown strike on the first play of the Coyotes' next drive to make it 20-0.
Five minutes later, Burgett capped the scoring with a 5-yard bootleg run. Facing third-and-goal from the Devils' 5-yard line, Burgett faked a handoff, rolled left, and raced a Sunnyside defender to the corner of the end zone.
 

"That was a momentum changer — the biggest momentum changer," said Burgett, who completed 12 of 22 passes for 252 yards and three scores. "After that … I think they were scared."
 

Sunnyside's players said they were more shocked than anything.
 

"Like a stab in the heart," senior defensive back Marcus Laverty said. "It just went downhill from there."
 

Centennial scored early in the fourth quarter, and finished with 405 yards of total offense. Barbour led the team with five catches for 119 yards. Tailback Jeff Hughes had 113 yards and a first-half touchdown.
 

Once down, Sunnyside's offense wasn't in any shape for a shootout.
 

Stevenson was held to just 7 second-half yards after putting up 96 in the first half. Quarterback Sammy Olivas completed just five passes after halftime, most of them coming with the game out of reach.
 

"Everybody fell apart," linebacker Zach Holmes said. "We couldn't stay as a team like we normally do."
 

The Blue Devils were so stunned by their second-half performance that Sanchez passed on a post-game speech, opting instead to address his team Monday.
 

The dejected players figured to get a jump-start on the analysis.
 

"It's a long ride home," Stevenson said.