WILLIAMS — Blayk Kelton tallied three touchdowns and nabbed an interception, Payton Reidhead added two scores and Mogollon forced six Williams turnovers to upset the No. 1-ranked Vikings 36-24 on a soggy Friday night.

The victory also locked up a 1A North region title for the No. 5-ranked Mustangs.

“I have to congratulate our boys, they did a great job,” longtime Mogollon head coach Rick Samon said after the game. “We went tonight after I told them, ‘Don’t play this for me, play it for you guys. Play with heart. They are a good team. If you want to be region champs, it can’t be for me. It’s because you play hard.’”

A pregame lightning storm rolled into town quickly, soaking the area with a blitz of raindrops about 45 minutes before kickoff. By the time the clouds cleared, most fans had already found their seat.

Having outscored their opponents 731-56 to stay undefeated through the first seven games this season, Williams (7-1, 3-1 1A North) struggled to get their offense going Friday night after three first-half fumbles.

“We turned the ball over six times, and some were within the 10-yard line,” Williams head coach Jeff Brownlee said. “You could have seen other teams put their head down, but our kids have a lot of fight. And they are going to come out of this game taking something positive that we played four hard quarters of football. And you must do that to win.”

Two Mogollon defenders pounce on Williams running back Drew Logan near the sideline Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. Logan had three touchdowns in the 36-24 loss to the Mustangs. (Brian M. Bergner Jr./AzPreps365)Kelton opened the game’s scoring with a 25-yard touchdown run to give Mogollon (5-2, 3-0 1A North) an 8-0 lead. But Williams tailback Drew Logan answered right back with a 10-yard touchdown run of his own, tying the game at 8-8 with 47.8 seconds to go in the first quarter.

Logan would score three touchdowns against the No. 5-ranked Mustangs on Friday night, giving him 21 total on the season. The senior running back struggled to hold onto the ball, however, fumbling it three times, including on the opening drive of the second half for Williams.

Mogollon responded to the third-quarter turnover quickly as quarterback Kyson Owens found Reidhead on a 17-yard touchdown strike to give the Mustangs a 20-8 lead with 9:28 to play in the third quarter.

Mogollon quarterback Kyson Owens (10) throws the ball Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, against Williams. The Mustangs won, 36-24. (Brian M. Bergner Jr./AzPreps365)Logan’s 55-yard touchdown run cut Mogollon’s lead to four, 20-16, but Reidhead’s 17-yard score put the Mustangs up 28-16 with 4:57 left in the third quarter as Williams was never able to cut the lead back to single digits the rest of the night.

“Our team goal was to be region champs, and we accomplished that tonight,” Reidhead said. “It was a confidence booster because we lost two pretty close games. Just going into the playoffs with that confidence is huge for us.”

Mogollon lost 42-34 to Hayden in Week 3, and 61-44 to St. David in Week 5.

“It was real big, it gets us a home game for the playoffs and gets us rolling again,” Kelton said. “We finally came together as a team, learned how to play some defense. We stuck it to them and played some defense, and we played like we should.”

The Mustangs, defending 1A state champions, have now defeated the Vikings in three straight seasons with wins in 2020 (48-8), 2021 (56-0) and now 2022 (36-24).

Williams made it to the state semifinals a season ago, but lost to then No. 2-seeded St. David, 50-38.

Despite one game being left on the schedule in 1A North action, Mogollon, now 4-0 within the region, holds the tiebreaker over both Williams and El Capitan, which are both 3-1.

“The nice thing is, for us, we lost two games early against two pretty good teams, which helped us regain some coaching ability, to do some instructional things and teaching them,” Samon said. “We only have four guys return from that state championship team last year, so there’s a lot of rebuilding and getting the guys ready for the playoffs in two weeks.”

Brownlee said that his kids can learn something from the loss Friday night.

“We told the kids tonight to use this as a positive thing. This hurt, feel the pain a little bit. Come Monday, strap it up and start building again,” Brownlee said.

Williams head coach Jeff Brownlee looks over his play sheet Friday, Oct. 7, 2022, as his No. 1 Vikings took on Mogollon. Williams lost, 36-24. (Brian M. Bergner Jr./AzPreps365)

UP NEXT

No. 5-ranked Mogollon enters Week 9 with a home game against Joseph City (4-3, 1-2 1A North) in the regular season finale Friday, Oct. 14. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Williams, which may lose its No. 1 state ranking after Friday’s loss, wraps up the 2022 regular season in Week 9 with a road trip to El Capitan on Friday, Oct. 14.

The Arizona Interscholastic Association refreshes the state rankings weekly on Tuesday mornings.

Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.

Brian M. Bergner Jr. has covered professional, collegiate and high school sports for more than 20 years. Follow him on Twitter @AzPreps365Brian. Have a story idea? Email Brian at bbergner@azpreps365.com.