Catalina Foothills football scores 15 points in under 20 seconds for a Week 5 win

Team of the Week

No. 15 Buena recovered from an overtime loss to No. 19 Tucson High two weeks ago with a dramatic win over No. 17 Marana in Sierra Vista, beating the Tigers 38-28 in Class 5A Sonoran Region play.

The Colts defense had an incredible day, recording 17 tackles for loss, four sacks for 60 yards lost and three interceptions for 122 yards, including an 81-yard pick-six.

Buena elected to run the ball 40 times compared to just nine passing plays, rushing for 273 yards and five touchdowns.

Play of the Week

Catalina Foothills produced one of the most magical sequences in Arizona high schoolfFootball on Friday, scoring 15 points in under 20 seconds to knock off then-No. 18 Pueblo.

Falcons’ junior quarterback Drew Kumar connected with junior receiver Payson Wooley for a 35-yard score to close the lead to seven with 15 seconds to play.

Foothills then recovered its own onside kick, moved up to the 30-yard-line after consecutive Pueblo penalties, and scored on a prayer to the end zone from Kumar to senior receiver Aziz Kassire. The Falcons went for 2 and scored on a short pass from Kumar to senior running back Khalil Azzam for the 29-28 upset win.

Stat book

Eleven running backs had 100-plus rushing yard performances on Friday, with several putting together multi-touchdown nights and a handful of teams piling up big rushing totals.

Sahuaro senior Anakin Alexander led Southern Arizona rushers with 256 yards on 43 carries and a touchdown. The Cougars also ran for 319 yards on 54 attempts as a team. Cienega junior Josiah Keyes followed with 217 yards on 32 carries and two touchdowns. Tombstone senior Xavier Lopez rushed for 241 yards on 27 carries with two touchdowns, while Willcox junior Asher Ward had 167 yards on 15 carries and two scores and senior Kaleb Cooke added 134 yards on 13 carries with three touchdowns.

Willcox rushed for 369 yards as a team, followed by Tanque Verde, as the Hawks ran for 310 yards on 34 carries with six touchdowns.

Tucson senior Josh Cota rushed for 130 yards on 16 carries with two touchdowns, while Mountain View junior Drake Davis had 125 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown. Benson junior Cohen Barney added 110 yards on 10 carries with three touchdowns, and Ironwood Ridge junior Gabriel Frazier had 112 yards on nine carries with a touchdown.

Catalina Foothills senior Khalil Azzam rushed for 106 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown and added a 2-point conversion catch. Marana junior Jeffrey Smith III rounded out the group with 101 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown.

Mac’s Friday Fact

Mica Mountain head football coach Jay Campos won his 150th game on Friday with the Thunderbolts’ 42-7 win over Sahuarita. Campos began his head coaching career at Sabino in 2003 and was with the Sabercats until 2016. He came aboard with Mica Mountain in 2025, winning the 4A State Championship with a 12-2 record.

Quotable

“Last year, we just had to teach them. We always said Cholla has the talent, we just had to get them right. … Tonight was good because that’s what we needed. We showed we can fully do that and dominate and actually come out here and take care of the game.” — Cholla head coach Roland Youngling told AllSportsTucson.com regarding the turnaround from last year’s 4-6 season to the Chargers’ first 3-2 start at the midway point in nearly 10 years.