sunnyside_title

FRANCISCO MEDINA/Tucson Citizen

Sunnyside's Xavier Smith (right) carries the ball during second-half action against Mingus.

Title goal coming into focus for back

Richard Obert
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 4, 2003 12:00 AM

Tucson Sunnyside High's football team was 0-2, and its tailback, Xavier Smith, kept running into his blockers.

Coach Richard Sanchez finally sent him to a doctor. An eye doctor.

The chart looked as blurry as the numbers on the scoreboard.

"I couldn't see much of anything from a distance," Smith said.

Smith was prescribed contacts. Ever since, the junior has seen nothing but big holes and end zones.

"It helped quite a bit," the 6-foot, 190-pounder said.

With the contacts, Smith has rushed for 1,731 yards on 169 carries (10.2 yards a tote) and 20 touchdowns.

Oh, by the way, the Blue Devils haven't lost.

They enter Saturday's Class 4A championship game against Glendale Cactus at Sun Devil Stadium on an 11-game win streak.

And everything looks crystal clear.

"The way our team is playing together, the way we're running the ball, we have a chance at the state title," Smith said.

It would be Sunnyside's second in three years.

Last year, Smith watched hopelessly from the sideline after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament on the season's opening kickoff.

He had knee surgery. He could only be witness to a sad semifinal loss to Scottsdale Chaparral, which beat Greenway the next week for the title.

Now that Smith spoiled Chaparral's previously unchallenged season by grinding out 103 yards in a 16-7 semifinal upset last week, Smith poses as the X-factor again.

He plugged in at outside linebacker last week and helped mess up what had been a flawless Chaparral offense, which came in averaging 55 points.

"Sunnyside smacked the will out of us," Firebirds coach Ron Estabrook said, describing the loss as the worst feeling in his life.

Smith likes it when Sunnyside can come in looking quite unassuming with its 5-foot-10 linemen, then smack a team around.

He credits the changes Sanchez made on the line after the second game - a 41-14 loss to Chaparral - as much as the new contacts.

"We knew we were good," Smith said. "We had to make sure the line had everything together."

Smith's knee felt fine coming into this season. But the coaches couldn't figure out why he couldn't find the holes.

"In the beginning of the year, he wasn't doing real well," Sanchez said. "He was running into running backs and not making the cuts he was supposed to make. He got his eyes checked.

"It turned out he needed contacts. He wasn't able to see beyond the linemen. He didn't know where to cut. He kept running into them."

Smith doesn't blame the slow start completely on a lack of vision.

"I just had to work harder," he said.

Smith's longest run from scrimmage this season is 81 yards. He was a clock-eating machine against Chaparral.

He didn't get in the end zone. But his big, straight-ahead blows that stunningly pushed the Firebirds on their heels loosened it up enough for shifty quarterback Jaime Cota to pull off a couple of Jake Plummer-like plays and turn broken plays into 24- and 66-yard scoring strikes in a second-half comeback.

"They're quick," Estabrook said.

Sunnyside is an easy team to root for, and Smith epitomizes the team's heart.

"Once he got used to everyone on the field and got used to the blocks and schemes, he's been great," said senior fullback Zack Samorano, who helps steer Smith into a clear field with his blocks.