By james art After a grueling nine-week football schedule, the battle for the Class 4A Desert League came down to the final game of the regular season.
AJ Williams helped Mojave win the league title and a first-round bye in the playoffs.
The senior threw touchdown passes on his only two attempts and caught another score to help the Rattlers, ranked No. 2 in the Review-Journal’s 4A rankings, to a 32-21 road win over No. 1 Losee on Thursday.
Mojave (9-1, 6-0) will have a bye in the 4A Desert semifinals on Nov. 8. Losee (8-2, 5-1) will host a quarterfinal next week.
Rattlers coach Wes Pacheco said his team was targeting this game.
“We knew going into this season they were the villains in our hero story, but we did everything in terms of weight and conditioning and pushed them to their limits with the intention of winning these games,” he said.
Losee started the control. On the Lions’ first drive, their top offensive threat, junior Kieran Daniel, scored on a 6-yard run to give Losee a 7-0 lead.
Mojave’s defense, which has six shutouts this season, seemed to settle down on the next possession as senior Ja’Laun Miller forced a fumble that was recovered by the Rattlers.
Mojave then scored on four straight drives, starting with a 57-yard touchdown pass to Williams senior Peyton Parnell to cut the Losey lead to 7-6 after a failed 2-point conversion.
Williams, who spent most of the game lined up as a receiver, later hit senior Miguel Reynares for a 42-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 26-7. Williams finished 2-for-2 for 99 yards and both scored.
Williams also had a 24-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to put Mojave up 14-7.
Mojave’s defense produced two interceptions and gave up less than 150 yards of offense in the second half.
As the top seed, Mojave will get a well-deserved week off, which Pacheco says the team will take full advantage of.
“We haven’t had a bye all week,” he said. “We’ve been through the grind of the schedule, but (the bye week) allows us to bring the team together and retool us a little bit.”