No longer considered a “small school” Walden Grove made the jump from Division III to 4A this year and things appear to be going pretty well for the school from Sahuarita. The Red Wolves improved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in power-ranking games thanks to a 51-45 win at Mountain View Marana Thursday night.

The three losses came to 5A schools Marana, Buena and Cienega with the loss to the Bobcats coming Tuesday night in their regular season opener. That loss is the only one that goes on their record, of course, but it will be more than offset by the win over 5A Mountain View.

A game against 6A power Rincon/University is also on their schedule along with the 4A Kino Region gauntlet of Salpointe, Catalina Foothills, Nogales and Canyon del Oro.

Mountain View (4-2, 1-1) pulled out a close game at Flowing Wells (48-47) on Tuesday night after going 3-1 at the preseason Buena Safeway Classic. Like Walden Grove, things will not get any easier for the Mountain Lions with Sunnyside coming in on Monday and a trip to Salpointe scheduled for the following night.

Mountain View faced Walden Grove without the services of freshman Evan Nelson. The 6-foot standout should return from an injury in time to face Sunnyside. Still, the Mountain Lions were able to build an early 8-2 lead on Walden Grove with 4:57 left in the first quarter.

That lead evaporated as the Red Wolves went on a 12-0 run to take a 16-8 lead with 6:34 left in the second. Despite being held scoreless for over six minutes, the Mountain Lions ended the half with a major run of their own to re-take the lead.

Down 24-16 with 3:08 left, sophomore Julian Molina hit on two 3-pointers and scored eight points down the stretch to give Mountain View new life. Junior Drew Cotton made a layup at the buzzer to give Mountain View a 30-29 lead heading to the locker room.

The two teams played even from there with Walden Grove taking a slim 42-40 lead after three but the Red Wolves ended the game on a 9-5 run for the 51-45 win.

Molina led Mountain View with 18 points and junior Darien Cochran added 10 more. Cotton scored eight points and junior Trevor Andresan scored seven. If you noticed, Mountain View is loaded with young talent with only two seniors on the roster. This team is set to make a major run in the 5A conference this year and next.

Walden Grove is led by junior guard Conner Verdugo. Verdugo is sitting at 940 career points after leading all scorers with 20 points. At his scoring rate, 2,000 career points is possible but it will mean a lot of points against bigger programs.

“We knew coming into this year that games were going to be very competitive for us,” Verdugo said. “We are quite honestly in one of the hardest regions in the state and every game is going to be tough for us. We have to continue to play like every game is a playoff game and respect each team we play.”

Verdugo also mentioned one of the biggest differences this year is the size of the crowds at the bigger schools. Cienega has a legendary student section and the students at Catalina Foothills, Salpointe, Nogales and Canyon del Oro will also show up big. Still, Verdugo scored 21 against Cienega. The “bigger crowds” will allow more people to see him play.

Junior Jordan Morris added 13 points for the Red Wolves and sophomore Chase Verdugo scored eight. Chase is Conner’s younger brother.