By james art 
Gilbert Christian walks off the field celebrating a score that made it 28-14 in the second quarter Friday night. (Photo by Dylan Kane/AZPreps365)
Dylan Kane is an ASU Cronkite journalism student assigned to cover Gilbert Christian for AZPreps365.com
TEMPE — Gilbert Christian senior quarterback Tyler Burr threw for six touchdowns and 362 yards, leading the Knights to a decisive 49-26 victory over Tempe in their final regular-season game Friday night.
With the win, Gilbert Christian improved to 6-4 (3-1) and climbed to No. 14 in the AIA 3A rankings. They are scheduled to play No. 3 Thatcher (8-2, 3-1) in the first round of the state tournament next Friday at Eastern Arizona College.
The top 16 teams in Division 3A advance to the state tournament. Gilbert Christian, ranked No. 15 heading into the game, needed a win Friday night to keep its spot in the tournament bracket.
“We’ve been thinking about this game all week as a playoff game,” senior running back Sam Webb said. “We knew that no matter what, we had to win this game.
Things didn’t start as planned for Gilbert Christian, as Tempe senior Saveon McCrimmon returned the kickoff for a touchdown to give Buffalo a 6-0 lead.
The Knights responded immediately with a six-play, 69-yard drive that ended with Burr’s 20-yard touchdown pass to junior receiver Bennett Juve. The extra point put the Knights ahead 7-6.
They never relinquished the lead.
“They showed their toughness and resilience,” coach John Carlson said. “I wasn’t surprised we came back (after a punt return touchdown).”
The big plays continued for Gilbert Christian in the first half as Burr connected with Webb on a screen pass for a 48-yard touchdown and then threw a 61-yard bomb to junior wide receiver Caleb Ely to extend their lead to 20-6.
Tempe kept it close after McCrimmon scored his second touchdown of the night on a pass from young quarterback Saul Mendez, but Juve’s second touchdown made it 28-14 at halftime.
Another Burr-to-Eli touchdown, followed by Webb’s 15th rushing touchdown of the season, put Gilbert Christian up 42-14 in the fourth quarter.
However, Tempe scored a touchdown with less than two minutes left, then quickly recovered from a fumble on the next possession to put itself in great position to mount a comeback.
Four plays later, the Buffaloes found themselves on first and goal at the Gilbert Christian 6-yard line. Gilbert Christian’s defense responded with a clutch goal line drive that ended any threat of a Tempe comeback, effectively ending the game.
“We came out ready to fire offensively,” Burr said. “Our line is doing great. They held up great tonight.”
Burr’s six touchdowns were the most in a game this season. Webb, Juve and Eli each had two of those touchdowns.
The screen pass was especially effective against the Tempe defense.
“We noticed that they were shiny a lot, so we just decided to keep doing that,” Webb said. “They didn’t stop him, so we kept scoring touchdowns on him.”
“We’ve been working on it a lot lately,” Burr said. “We probably implemented it a few weeks ago and used it a lot.”
Gilbert Christian will play playoff football for the fourth straight season.
“It’s great to be in a playoff atmosphere,” Burr said. “You have to understand that every game could be your last game, so you really have to leave it all on the field.”