Perfect no more

It was billed as a heavyweight fight, featuring the first- and second-ranked teams in 4A Division 1 football. But in the end, Cactus (9-1, 5-0) had no answer for the big play offense of Saguaro (10-0, 5-0), falling 44-19 and losing their perfect record.

Head Coach Larry Fetkenhier said the Cobras simply made too many mistakes to stay in the game.

“We let them jump out to a big lead, and we just were unable to play consistent football to get back in it,” Fetkenhier said. “Saguaro is a really good football team and you can’t make the kind of mistakes we made if you want to beat them.”

Saguaro led by only a touchdown after the first quarter. By halftime, they were ahead 17-7, but statistically, the Sabercats were dominant. Senior quarterback Tim Ruben threw for 104 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, while running for another 26 yards.

Saguaro had built their lead to 37-7 with less than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter before Cactus was able to put more points on the board.

Each of Saguaro’s scoring plays came either on a big play or immediately followed one. In the first quarter it was a 35-yard touchdown pass; in the second quarter, a 41-yard pass led only two plays later to a 1-yard touchdown run; in the third, a 49-yard pass to the Cactus 3-yard line was immediately run in for a touchdown.

“We had absolutely no answer for their big plays,” Fetkenhier said. “Obviously, you can’t win if you give up as many big plays as we did.”

With the playoffs set to begin next weekend, Fetkenhier said he is not worried about an emotional letdown in the team after losing their perfect season in the final game of the year.

“I would hope they’d be angry instead,” Fetkenhier said. “I’m not concerned about these guys bouncing back. We’ll do what we have to do to prepare and we’ll be ready to go.”