With a 30-0 triumph Friday, Oct. 16, at McClintock High School, Mingus Union High School got its fifth straight win, third shutout of the fall and a one-game lead atop Section VIII with two games to play.
Just don’t try talking about those Division III playoff implications with head coach Bob Young.
“I don’t want to hear about it,” he said. “All we’re going to work on is playing football.
“What we’ve done the last two weeks, Saturday morning I go over different playoff scenarios with them. I talk about what happens if we win, or if this team loses. Then we stop talking about it.”
Minus senior quarterback Jordan Upham, the Marauders [7-1] continued their reign atop the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s power rankings for Division I through III high schools in Northern Arizona.
In his place, kicker and backup quarterback Trey Meyer scored the first 10 points of the game on a three-yard run and 26-yard field goal following another slow start. MUHS has not scored in the first quarter in all of sectional play, nearly a month.
“Like I told the team, we were flat-lined the last couple weeks,” Young said. “We need to focus on fundamentals — blocking and tackling.”
Meyer’s punting and kicking leg has been one of the Marauders’ overlooked assets, even after racking up a total of 457 combined yards against the Chargers, pinning them twice inside their 20-yard-line.
Meyer found junior tight end Trevor Galloway on a 50-yard play-action pass, which set up senior Alec Phyfer’s score from three yards out with 2:16 remaining before halftime.
Sophomore Cole Phelps added second-half scoring scampers of two and 24 yards as six MUHS rushers combined for 330 yards on the ground.
With as little as the Marauders’ defense was giving McClintock, the offense — besides the bomb to Galloway — didn’t need to do anything else.
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Oct. 21, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
