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RENEE BRACAMONTE/Tucson Citizen 
Sunnyside wide receiver George Garza runs the ball in the second quarter against the Firebirds.

Sunnyside holds off improving Chaparral


Richard Obert
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 4, 2004 12:00 AM

TUCSON - Scottsdale Chaparral showed the state's No. 1-ranked team that there may be another meeting - in the Class 4A playoffs.

Despite a 17-7 loss to host Sunnyside, the reloaded Firebirds (1-1) found a small victory.

They showed they're really not that far from being very good, giving the defending state champion all it could handle.

The Blue Devils (2-0), with most everybody back from last season's championship team that stunned an unbeaten Chaparral team in the semifinals, couldn't put away the Firebirds until quarterback Jaime Cota burned them with a 31-yard scoring strike to Wally Altamirano with 2:11 left for a 17-7 lead.

"They've improved tremendously (from last week)," Sunnyside coach Richard Sanchez said. "And we didn't improve the way I thought we should have or could have and it showed. They kind of stuffed our run."

Tailback Xavier Smith had 92 yards on 21 carries and had a 63-yard scoring run in the first quarter called back by a false start. Smith met nose tackle Ekom Udofia, the state's top prospect, repeatedly. Sixty-four of Smith's yards - including a 26-yard touchdown run - came on three carries.

Cota completed 11 of 24 passes for 220 yards and the one touchdown.

"Cota was shifty," Udofia said. "I thought we did pretty good against the run. But Cota kind of shredded us."

With Nick Neuenfeldt in his first varsity season at quarterback, Chaparral coach Ron Estabrook used a conservative game plan by running mostly up the middle with Spencer Rothery getting 24 carries for 108 yards and a touchdown.

Neuenfeldt threw only one pass in the first half. Sunnyside had to settle for a 10-0 halftime lead after Udofia led a goal-line stand to end the half.

"We feared their coverage a little bit," Estabrook said. "We probably should have loosened it up a little bit. Our game plan was to challenge them up front."