Falcons soar higher than ever

Tenth-seeded Foothills held a 28-point lead over seventh-seeded Sabino with 5:58 remaining before the host Sabercats scored 22 unanswered points. Sabino cut the lead to six before Foothills took a knee to run out time in its 34-28 upset in the first round of the 4A-I playoffs on Friday night.

"(Sabino coach) Jay Campos has a great program and a great team," said Foothills coach Scott Cortese, whose team improved to 7-4. "They've been to so many playoff games. They're not going to quit. We knew that going into it, but it was still like the longest five minutes of my life."

Foothills, which also beat Sabino in the regular season, is now 1-4 all-time in playoff games and advances to play at No. 2 Queen Creek (9-2) on Friday. Queen Creek beat No. 15 Glendale Raymond Kellis 41-7 to advance.

The Falcons led 34-6 with 5:58 remaining before Sabino (8-3) rallied to cut the lead to 34-28 with 26.1 seconds remaining.

"It was scary, but in the end, we still pulled it off," said Foothills junior quarterback Alyn Fletcher, who completed 3 of 8 passes for 106 yards and a 77-yard touchdown. He also rushed for 91 yards and a 47-yard touchdown.

Sabino never led and trailed 10-0 at halftime and 24-6 after three quarters.

"We started off too slow tonight," Campos said. "They did a good job getting off of blocks. It was just rough getting anything going. It was too little, too late."

On Oct. 15, Foothills beat Sabino 31-28.

"I'm happy we finally did it. Foothills finally made their name," Fletcher said.

After a scoreless first quarter, the Falcons scored on senior Shawn Kobylinski's 30-yard interception return with 11:10 left before the half.

Foothills went ahead 10-0 on junior Andrew Flores' 27-yard field goal with 3:42 remaining before halftime. The Falcons began the scoring drive at their own 32-yard line after Sabino was unsuccessful moving the ball on fourth-and-six.

"We don't have egos here, and we just do what it takes to win the game," Cortese said.