It’s a defense that has only given up 15 points all year and an offense that is averaging almost 33 points a night. It’s hard to compete with a program moving at that pace, especially when they limit what you can do with the ball. Mica Mountain beat previously unbeaten Casa Grande 41-7 on the road Friday night and the Thunderbolts scored off an opening drive, a drive resulting from an interception, a drive coming off a turnover on downs, a drive resulting from a fumble, another drive off of a turnover on downs and a closing drive engineered by the second team.

The Thunderbolts scored on every possession except for a drive that started on their own 16 after the defense took control of the ball on another turnover on downs with 44 seconds left on the clock. Taking a knee ended the first half in that situation and it was a first half that was dominated by the run with 27 carries compared to only two passes thrown by senior quarterback Jayden Thoreson and those two passes went the distance.

“Just score points,” Thoreson said when asked about the running attack versus an aerial display. “That was the whole game plan.” In the end Thoreson threw for only 55 yards on three completions with one of those completions hitting senior standout Jimmy Leon from 12 yards out after a turnover on downs to put the Thunderbolts up 21-0 and another came to Leon less than a minute later after a fumble. That one came from 32 yards out to put the team in control 28-0 with 3:05 left in the first half.

Leon registered two huge sacks in the game and he pressured Casa Grande QB Luke Keeton on several occasions from his defensive end position to go along with his catches from his tight end spot on the field. Leon will be taking a visit to NAU on Saturday.

Even with the pressure, Keeton still ended the night with 132 yards passing and he was able to find Dedric Gulley for a score with 7:15 left in the game from 10 yards out to cut the lead down to 35-7 but by then the clock was in the running mode and Mica Mountain responded with Caleb Cherry driving the team down 68 yards for the final score of the night.

Cam Armstrong rushed for 58 yards to lead the Cougars, at a bit over seven yards a carry, but opportunities were limited and he was unable to put all of talents on display with Mica Mountain controlling the ball on defense and on the ground.

Josiah Thornwell rushed for 138 yards on 14 carries with two TDs and Jordan Perry added 104 yards rushing on 16 carries with another score. The running offense, combined with a running clock in the second half, meant the game was over in a little over two hours.

“Our defense been great all year, we had three shutouts and we always hoped for that, but this was an explosive Casa Grande team,” Mica Mountain head coach Pat Nugent said. “They've been putting 40 to 50 points up the game. We just hoped that we could contain them.”

Coming in, the Cougars under head coach Mark Luna was averaging 48 points a night. Even with seven points on Friday, the team is scoring 40 points a pop. It’s a high-powered offense that will need to be hitting again with Buena (4-1) coming in next Friday. It will be a 5A Southern Region game with both squads sitting at 4-1.

Our defense takes pride being on the field, and they want to shutout every week,” Nugent added. “We saw some things and we thought we could run the ball, when you have a quarterback like Jayden Thoreson and the receivers that we have, but we wanted to win this game. This was an important game.”

Mica Mountain (5-0) will enter a bye week and will host Pueblo (2-3) on October 11, three days after the initial set of AIA rankings for 4A, 5A, 6A and the Open Division are released. Like Canyon del Oro last year, the Thunderbolts are expected to be one of the 4A teams in the mix for an Open Division spot but do they want it? A tempered 4A Kino Region schedule might decide a title run in the 4A Conference or a difficult first round match against a 6A power in the Open Division.

THE SCORES

 

THE INTERVIEWS