Cactus fights until final play in loss at 4A title game

All fairy tales must have an ending. For Cinderella, it was the stroke of midnight. For Cactus High School football players, it was a team from Tucson.

Playing in its third 4A state championship in school history last Saturday at Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium, Cactus fared the same way it did the first two times - with a loss.

Sunnyside, which shocked the state a week prior by knocking off defending champ Chaparral, rallied from a 10-0 deficit in the first half and held on for a 21-13 victory to win their second state title in three years.

"It's terrible," said Cactus coach Larry Fetkenhier. "It will get worse the more it sinks in."

Fetkenhier, who is in his 20th year as Cactus coach, also experienced the first two state championship losses in 1985 and 1987.

In those games, Cactus was beaten handily 27-0 and 28-6. But with last week's game coming down to the final play, it is the closest Cactus has ever been to winning it all.

Cobras quarterback Bubba Bradley found an open Kevin Marin for an apparent 39-yard touchdown in the final seconds that would have made the score 21-19 with a possible 2-point conversion try to follow.

But officials ruled that Bradley had tossed the ball from past the line of scrimmage, negating the touchdown.

"I still thought we were going to score on the next play," Fetkenhier said.

But Sunnyside's defense, which held Cactus' high-powered offense in check after struggling in the first two series, sacked Bradley on the game's final play, leaving a shocked and dejected Cactus team spread out over the field in silence.

Sunnyside, which ended the season with 12 straight wins after starting the season 0-2, improved to 2-1 in state title games, and may be a favorite to repeat next year with most of the starters returning.

But the Blue Devils were sweating out the final drive when Bradley's play appeared to give Cactus its second amazing rally of these playoffs.

"I thought, ‘Oh (expletive), the (defense) let somebody behind them (for the score)," Sanchez said. "It was a relief. We haven't had too many breaks."

Cactus started the game getting the breaks and it appeared that was what the Cobras needed to finally get over the hump at state.

Despite having one of the state's best teams each season, the Cobras have never put it all together for a state title.

That appeared to change from the start when Bradley directed a 13-play, 78-yard drive that ate up the first six minutes of the game. Bradley scrambled 13 yards on third-and-4 to keep the drive alive and punctuated it with a 4-yard scamper to make it 7-0.

Sunnyside was held on downs on its first possession and Cactus' offense went to work again.

A 15-play drive resulted in a 32-yard field goal for Bradley as Cactus dodged two potential turnovers - a fumble which it recovered and an interception that Sunnyside's Ruben Leyva dropped.

"I was telling (assistant coach Glenn) Posey that we can't win if we don't have the ball," Sanchez said.

With a 10-0 lead, Cactus' defense then did its part as Sunnyside began moving the ball.

On second-and-3 from the Cactus 26, senior Nick Childs picked off a pass at the 4 and returned it to the 15 to kill the threat.

Unfortunately for Cactus fans, that's when the Cobra offense went cold for most of the rest of the game.

After Cactus punted following the interception, Sunnyside finally got on the board when quarterback Jaime Cota hit Mike Villalobos on a 17-yard TD strike on third-and-12 with 1:54 left in the half.

Cactus missed a 50-yard field goal right before halftime.

Sunnyside grabbed the lead for good right after halftime as it marched 80 yards for the go-ahead score.

After the teams traded punts, Cactus got the ball back at the 44 after Sunnyside shanked a punt that went only 9 yards.

Nigel Ricks nearly broke free for a 25-yard touchdown run on second down, but was pulled down from behind at the 5.

On third-and-goal from the 13, Bradley scrambled 10 yards to set up one of the key plays of the game.

Instead of electing to kick the field goal to reduce the margin to 1, Fetkenhier chose to go for it on fourth-and-goal.

Sunnyside's defense came up big with a goal-line stand that proved to be a game-clincher.

"I figured if they didn't get it down there that we'd be giving them the ball back there," Fetkenhier said about the decision.

The failure might have led to Fetkenhier electing to go for the field goal in a similar situation on Cactus' next drive.

Getting the ball back at the Sunnyside 43 after the Blue Devils punted out of their end zone, Cactus slowly worked its way to first and goal at the 10. On fourth down from the 5, Fetkenhier had Bradley try a 22-yard field goal, which was perfect to cut the deficit to 14-13 with 5:29 left in the game.

The teams then traded punts and Sunnyside got the ball back with 3:24 left and a chance to run out the clock.

Junior Xavier Smith, who finished with 120 yards for the game, broke it open with a 50-yard gallop down the left sideline to the Cactus 30. A personal foul on Cactus set the ball at the 10.

With two minutes still on the clock, Sunnyside tried to work off some time to prevent Cactuss from attempting a rally.

But Smith punched the ball in from the 1 with 1:28 left.

"We didn't want to score too early," Sanchez said. "We wanted to eat some time off the clock."

Cactus got the ball back at the 18 with 1:28 left and two timeouts remaining.

Two weeks prior in the quarterfinals against Centennial, Cactus found itself in a similar predicament - down by a score with only minutes remaining.

But Bradley hit a 50-yard field goal to tie it with a minute left and then Cactus won it after recovering what turned out to be an onside kick 50 yards downfield.

Hoping for similar magic in the championship game, Bradley led Cactus on gains of 8, 5, 9, 9 and 12 before the pass play to Marin was called back for illegal forward pass penalty.

With only :09 remaining on the clock, Bradley scrambled one final time to wait for an open receiver downfield, but Sunnyside's sack ended the game.

Sunnyside players swarmed the field to celebrate, while Fetkenhier stood silent near the 40-yard line marker inscribed on the field.

Cactus finished the year tying the school record for wins with 12.