By james art 
The No. 10 Salpointe Catholic Lancers defeated the No. 25 Scottsdale Saguaro Sabercats 28-16 Friday night at Ed Doherty Stadium in their final non-region game of the season.
Salpointe (6-2) will host its final regular season game Friday against Phoenix Brophy Prep (8-1) in what will be a 6A Central title game. Both teams are 3-0 in the region. The match is from 19:00
Friday’s game with Saguaro was a rematch of last year’s 6A semifinal game won by the Sabercats on their way to the championship.
Saguaro underwent a coaching change and the former Buena and Pima standout at quarterback Darius Kellywho went on to play at Syracuse, is the new head coach.
Kelly, the former Catalina Foothills head coach, has hired many assistants with Southern Arizona ties, including former Arizona teammates BJ Denker (offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach) and Terence Miller (the wide receivers and tight ends coach).
On a cold night, the Sabercats (1-8) tried to rally late but were subdued by the Lancers, who have won six of their last seven games.
With 7:30 left in the game, the Sabercats faced 4th and 14 at the Lancer 34.
Quarterback Saguaro Marcel Jones managed to get in touch with Aidan Whittaker for a 34-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 21-16 after a successful two-point conversion.
After converting on a fourth-and-short play earlier in the drive, quarterback Salpointe Rick Avelar was able to find a hole down the sideline and scampered in for a 24-yard touchdown to put the Lancers up 28-16 with 4:21 left.
Safety Richard Archeluta ended it for Salpoint with an interception with 3:03 left.
From there, the Lancers were able to run out the clock.
“A win is a win, it’s important for our guys and for our program,” coach Salpointe Pat Ryden said. “The way we did it, we’re not very happy. We didn’t perform very well and gave up a lot of points tonight.”
The game was competitive from the start.
Salpointe cornerback Joey Castillo had an interception to thwart Saguaro’s first dunk.
Just a few plays later, Whittaker, a defensive cornerback, recovered the ball by getting an interception and returning it to the Salpointe 25.
Saguaro got on the board first as Jones found Whitaker for a touchdown in the red zone on third down. Jones scored on the two-point conversion to put the Sabercats up 8-0 early in the first quarter.
Salpoint was able to respond quickly with a less than two-minute full-field drive that was capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by a running back Nathan Spivey to cut the lead to 8-7.
It’s been a standout season for Spivey, who was named to MaxPreps’ 6A Central Top Football Player of the Year article for his performance in Salpointe’s 29-12 win at Mountain Pointe last week.
“Nate will always play. It’s absolutely ridiculous that someone (Division I college programs) hasn’t offered him yet,” Ryden said.
Saguaro’s offense went cold, going three-and-out on its final three shots of the first quarter.
Salpoint failed to capitalize, missing a field goal and then fumbling the ball on two shots left in the quarter.
The Lancers were able to gain some momentum to end the quarter, blocking a Saguaro punt. That put Salpointe in a great position to start the second quarter.
At the beginning of the quarter, Reyes Alvarezwho started at quarterback for the Lancers, was able to find Spivey for a 5-yard touchdown to put the Lancers ahead 14-8.
On Saguaro’s ensuing drive, Spivey, also playing safety, had an interception in the end zone.
The Sabercats drove the ball into Lancers territory before eventually turning it over on downs with just under two minutes left in the first half.
Salpoint quickly went three and out and were forced to punt the ball back to Saguaro with just over a minute left in the half. The punt was muffed by Saguaro and the Lancers recovered at the Sabercat 35.
On the next play, running back Richard Rivera found a lane down the sideline and ran it in for a 35-yard touchdown to give Salpointe a 21-8 lead. That score would hold until halftime after Salpoint’s safety Alon Deon got an interception with 24 seconds left.
The two teams traded three-and-outs to start the second half.
On Salpointe’s next drive, Ryden inserted Avelar to give the offense a different look. This is something the Lancers have done all season using both Alvarez and Avelar.
“When (Alvarez) struggles a little bit, we bring (Avelar) on and try to change it and get in the right direction. There’s really no plan as to when we’ll get one or the other. We’re fortunate to have two guys who can both play,” Ryden said.
There was no scoring in the third quarter as Salpoint punted and missed a field goal and Saguaro turned the ball over on the final drive of the fourth. Salpointe led 21-8 in the fourth quarter.
biography: Henry Kaplowitz is a student at the University of Arizona studying journalism. He is interested in sports reporting and can be reached at [email protected].
