Tucson Sunnyside tops Chaparral

NORTHEAST VALLEY - There were signs of cracks in Chaparral's seemingly invincible armor before its football season ended Friday in a 16-7 semifinal loss to Tucson Sunnyside.

In a quarterfinal victory over Moon Valley, the Firebirds' offense sputtered early and the team trailed 17-16 in the third quarter.

The Firebirds never stopped making the same mental mistakes that surfaced in a September victory against Centennial. Holding penalties plagued the Firebirds all year, but they got away with it against meek East Sky competition.

Sunnyside was the first great defensive team the Firebirds faced. And, as the cliche goes, defense wins championships.

"The defense can only do so much," Chaparral coach Ron Estabrook said. "We've got to take some pressure off of them with the offense."

Estabrook might have outwitted himself by installing a new offensive package just for Sunnyside, a team the Firebirds beat 41-14 the second week of the season. He wanted to get wide receiver John Peel involved more, but the new package was dropped for the old package in the second half with Chaparral scoring only one touchdown.

"It didn't make any difference," Estabrook said. "We were trying to get John Peel open on double coverage. They just did a good job on us."

Sunnyside surprised the Firebirds with its quickness and intensity, its speed and poise.

The Blue Devils were down 7-3 in the first half, but they simply outfooled the Firebirds in the second half with quarterback Jaime Cota lulling them to sleep with big plays. He hit George Garza on touchdown strikes of 24 and 66 yards.

With the Blue Devils defense flying to the ball, and containing Firebirds running back Kam Kranz, quarterback Darren Mougey and Peel, that was all Sunnyside needed to advance to Saturday's 4A championship game against Glendale Cactus at Sun Devil Stadium.

The Firebirds (12-1) won the state championship last season behind mostly underclassmen.

This team averaged 55 points before Sunnyside stopped it cold.

Xavier Smith, a junior running back/linebacker, said the Blue Devils watched film of Greenway against Chaparral and noticed how the Demons stunted and blitzed. It caught the Firebirds a little off guard.

The Blue Devils did that to the Firebirds with much better results.

"We brought the heat," Sunnyside coach Richard Sanchez said. "We weren't going to sit back and let them stick it to us. We told our kids, 'We're going after them.' "

Linebacker Dustin Kleven couldn't believe it.

"You've got to hand it to them, they came out better than us," Kleven said. "You never expected this. But you've got to hand it to them."

Estabrook starts over next season with the bulk of the team graduating.

Mougey, Kranz, Peel, Kleven and perhaps defensive end Alex King will all move on to play at Division 1 schools.

"Obviously, it's devastating, especially to the seniors, who worked so hard for it," Estabrook said. "But we didn't play well enough to win."