The common football parlance for the 1-2 punch that the Salpointe Catholic football team delivered against visiting Marcos de Niza on Thursday night is thunder and lightning.
What do they call the 1-2-3-4 knockout that the Lancers landed against the Padres?
Perhaps Double Thunder, Double Lightning?
Sophomore running back Mario Padilla ran for 204 yards and two touchdowns, freshman Swiss Army Knife tailback/wideout Bijan Robinson broke free on a 49-yard touchdown connection with Sean Barton and added 109 yards rushing and linebackers Anthony Madril and Cameron Tober picked up crucial quarterback sacks to lead Salpointe into the 4A semifinals with a 48-6 win over Marcos de Niza in Thursday’s quarterfinal matchup (see box score below).
“We had a really good week of practice, and I was just trying to get them believing in themselves,” Salpointe coach Dennis Bene said. “Marcos is such a good team, led by a legendary coach, and I just wanted the kids to be loose and believe they could play at this level and boy they really executed tonight.”
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The Lancers struck early with Padilla breaking off a 24-yard run to set up a 10-yard touchdown on the first drive, and they added a field goal after forcing a fumble on the Padres’ first drive to score some early momentum.
After a 4-yard touchdown run by Zyayre Moss brought the score to 10-6 — Madril stuffed Padres quarterback Nazareth Moses on the two-point conversion attempt — Salpointe went on a 21-0 run to close the first half as Padilla and Robinson torched the defense.
“They’re really finding their groove,” Bene said. “But it starts and ends with the defense and the big guys up front on the offensive line, allowing Mario and Bijan to make some plays.”
Added Robinson: “It really is the offensive line first, for opening up the holes. We had to keep reading the lanes and once they opened up, touchdown. After they scored, we adjusted and it was just like … score, score, score, score.”
Early in the second quarter, a Robinson 44-yard run put Salpointe inside the Marcos de Niza red zone, and Barton capped it off with a 9-yard touchdown run. The two connected on the Lancers’ next drive for the 49-yard score, as Barton hit Robinson streaking across midfield and Robinson flashed some moves on his way to the end zone.
After nearly sacking the elusive Greer twice on the ensuing drive, Salpointe forced a punt and received their final possession of the half with 1:59 left. They milked the clock and appeared to be satisfied with the lead and ready to head to the locker room with the momentum, but Padilla had other plans.
On a second-and-10 from the Salpointe 33-yard line, Padilla took it 47 yards to the 10, then capped off the drive as the half expired with a 4-yard touchdown run. For the half, Padilla had 151 yards on 16 carries.
“The line was doing a great job, they were getting to linebackers, and they were giving me holes big enough to drive a truck through,” Padilla said.
With the offense giving Salpointe the 25-point first-half cushion, the Lancers defense flexed its muscles in the second half.
Salpointe forced punts on the Padres’ first two possessions of the second half, and Rodrigo Nieto returned an interception 47 yards for a touchdown to put the Lancers up 42 with just over eight minutes left.
“We knew we had to come out even stronger the second half, and that’s what we did,” Padilla said. “The defense putting points up on the board was huge, and the running clock was really big.”
— Jon Gold / Arizona Daily Star
Next week: No. 4 Salpointe Catholic (10-2) vs. No. 1 Scottsdale Saguaro (12-0) at Scottsdale Desert Mountain
