Nathan Peterson
Special to AZPreps365.com

Glendale moves to first place in 4A Skyline Region

October 30, 2021 by Nathan Peterson, AZPreps365


Glendale's Junior Dukulay (No. 5) celebrates with Israel Culbertson after a first half score. Photo by Bailey Warren/azpreps365.com.

Glendale sits atop the 4A Skyline Region after defeating St. Mary’s 33-21 Friday night.

It’s a great place to be with two games left in the regular season for Glendale.

Glendale and St. Mary’s came into the night with seven and five game win streaks, respectively.

The Glendale Cardinals were led offensively by sophomore quarterback Zechariah Owens, who accounted for 256 yards passing and three touchdowns in the air and one on the ground.

Two of those passing touchdowns went to senior wide receiver Junior Dukulay, who finished with three receptions for 139 yards. Two of those touchdowns were 65 and 69-yard receptions.

“I saw the corner playing man on me, and he pushed up, so I dropped back,” said Dukulay while explaining his first long touchdown. “Owens dropped it off to me and I took off. I’ve been waiting for this. This is my Senior Night and I have to go crazy. We have had a game like this in us. We have been practicing for hard for teams like St. Mary’s and we executed really well tonight. Everyone likes to win but few put in the work. We have been putting in the work this season and it has shown on the field.”

The Cardinals raced out to a 21-14 halftime lead as their offense scored touchdowns on their first three drives and ran out of time in the half on their fourth drive.

St Mary’s had its opportunities in the first half, including two scoring drives from junior quarterback/running back David Galindo. Galindo, running the Wing-T, was stuffed on fourth down from the Cardinals’ two yard line on St. Mary’s first drive but later in the half found the end zone once on the ground and in the air.

St Mary’s had an opportunity to tie the game right after halftime when Galindo led the Knights down to the Cardinals’ 15-yard line, but a bad handoff led to a fumble that Glendale recovered. This was the only turnover on the night for either team.

Mr. Do It All for the Knights, Galindo, finished with 28 carries for 139 yards and three touchdowns on offense. Galindo also serves as the Knights’ starting middle linebacker and long snapper.

“That’s a great football team in Glendale,” St Mary’s coach Jose Lucero said. “We came in wanting to play physical football, and I think we did that for the most part, but we shot ourselves in the foot, which cost us. We have to move on to next week. We have to regroup and stay together.”

As for Glendale, coach Rob York said, “Our offense does a great job moving the ball and staying ahead of the chains. I like to be aggressive and have a lot of confidence on the offensive side of the ball.”

That aggressiveness has contributed to Glendale not punting in six weeks.

“We can’t get complacent,” York said. “Our message for the last six years has been that we are 0-0. We have a lot more work to do. Unsportsmanlike penalties like tonight will hurt us against Thunderbird and will hurt us in the playoffs. We have to clean some things up and that is 100% on me.”

Glendale will look to hold on to first place in the region in two weeks on the road at Thunderbird.

St Mary’s will likely need to beat Shadow Mountain and Seton Catholic to stay playoff relevant.