TEMPE — Adam Damante threw for three touchdowns, Tyton Slade had two scores and ALA-Gilbert North claimed the program’s first state football championship with a 28-14 win over Snowflake at Sun Devil Field on Friday afternoon.

The Eagles (12-2, 4-0 4A East Sky) cap the 2022 campaign with a nine-game winning streak, their only losses coming against ALA-QC, a 5A school that managed to make the Open Championship Bracket as a No. 7 seed, losing to No. 2 Basha 31-25, and Eastmark, a club that claimed a 3A state title during Thanksgiving weekend.

Basha, which plays in the Open Championship game Saturday in Tempe, is considered one of the Top 25 high school football teams in the country.

“[Our players have] gotten better all year, we've gone through a ton of adversity, where a lot of guys have contributed at different times and it's just great that we got the right guys in the right place, when it mattered most,” said Eagles head coach Randy Ricedorff, who built the program from the ground up starting in 2017.

Both ALA-Gilbert North and Snowflake played in the 3A conference a season ago.

Damante, a 6-foot-1, 180-pound quarterback who has reportedly signed to play football for Northern Arizona University next fall, completed 31 of 43 passes for 252 yards and three touchdowns.

The senior’s 59 touchdown throws this fall moved him past Brock Purdy (Perry, 2017) for fifth all time in the single-season record books. His only blemish Friday came with 10:05 to play in the third quarter when he was picked off by Snowflake standout middle linebacker Matthew Brimhall with 10:05 to play in the third quarter and the Eagles leading only 14-7.

It was only the third interception all year by the senior quarterback.

Brimhall finished with 17 tackles, one sack and one pass breakup to go along with the interception. The 17 tackles gives him 219 on the season, good enough for Top 10 in the country, according to MaxPreps.com.

Wide receiver Brandon Phelps, who was the target of Damante’s first two passes for scores, had seven catches for 33 yards.

"It just means the world to me,” Phelps said about winning the title. “I love that I can do it for all the guys that aren't going to play football again. I'm just glad they're going to remember this for the rest of their lives."

The junior wideout finishes with 28 touchdown catches on the season, just one shy of the state record for a single season set by John Henderson (29, Yuma Catholic) in 2018.

“I’m glad I can put my name in the record books,” Phelps said.

Slade, who caught Damante’s third touchdown pass on a great catch in the front of the end zone near the pylon to make it 20-7 Eagles with 3:46 to go in the third quarter, caught eight passes for 108 yards.

His 4-yard rushing touchdown came off a nifty reverse play that saw the 4A East Sky region Player of the Year in Damante throw a lead block to pancake a Snowflake defender, opening a lane to the end zone for the score and giving the Eagles a 28-7 lead with 6:35 to play in the game.

OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES

The two-time defending state champion Lobos (10-4, 2-2 4A East Sky) managed 232 yards of offense, 182 of which came from a ground game that could move the ball, but struggled to score.

Jett McCray kickoff the game’s scoring with a 6-yard touchdown run with 7:01 to play in the first quarter, putting No. 2-seeded Snowflake on top 7-0.

McCray had 13 carries for 49 yards.

But it wasn’t until 5:04 remained in the game that the Lobos would score again, a 6-yard touchdown run by JJ Lerma, who had eight carries for 64 yards and the score.

VICTORY FORMATION

At the end of the game, instead of Damante coming out to take a knee as ALA-Gilbert North lined up in victory formation about to celebrate a 28-14 win over Snowflake for a state title, a defensive player took the honors.

Senior defensive end Casey Steketee, who was lost for the season after suffering an ACL tear in the first game of the season, gingerly kneeled and tossed the ball to the referee like he had done it his whole life.

“He showed up every single day, every single practice. And you know what, what a lesson to everybody when things aren't going well, the chips don't go your way. You just keep stepping, keep supporting, keep loving and that's exactly what he did,” Ricedorff said. “Again, just a special, special player, very special that he's able to take the last play of the game. I'm so happy for him. So proud of him and it is just an honor to be his coach."

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.