Kellis senior quarterback Ronald Coty III stepped back in the pocket and he hit fellow senior Nathan Macias in stride up the middle and the Cougars led 7-0 some 80 yards later. It was the first play of the game and it took only 13 seconds off the clock. Coty would leave the game in the fourth quarter with five TD passes and a 49-7 victory at Ironwood Ridge in the first round of the 5A playoffs. Kellis made the state playoffs six times in program history dating back to 2007 and this was the first playoff victory for the Cougars, breaking an 0-5 losing streak.

No. 12 Kellis (10-1) will travel to play at No. 4 Cactus (8-3) in the quarterfinal round after the Cobras beat No. 13 Mountain View 42-13 to set up the game next Friday night. No. 5 Ironwood Ridge fell to 8-3 on the year with back-to-back losses for the first time in the three years after head coach Dale Stott turned a 1-9 program into a playoff contender, but with difficult first round matchups.

Likewise, Cougar head coach Ben Kullos inherited a program that went 1-27 in the three years prior to his arrival and he turned it into a contender with a 29-11 record since 2021. At 9-1 at the end of the regular season, the Cougars might have been a bit underrated and, had there been no Open Division, Kellis would have earned a No. 16 seed.

Coty made it 14-0 on a 76-yard pass to Macias with 7:26 left in the first quarter but the Nighthawks came right back with a 23-yard strike from Hunter Rehrmann to Matthew Kroner to cut the lead down to 14-7 with 6:39 left. It looked like the Nighthawks were back in the game at that point but Coty made it 21-7 on a 31-yard score to David Bedolla two minutes later.

Rehrmann replaced injured QB Jaiden Martinez and the Nighthawks also lost the services of Grant Dooling early on so things were not going to get an easier, especially with Rocky Warner putting the Cougars up 28-7 on a 24-yard interception return with 10:50 left in the half.

Coty hit Bedolla from 46 yards to make it 35-7 with 9:38 left in the half and Coty picked up his fifth TD pass on a two-yard toss to Avery Rodriguez to make it 42-7 with 2:24 left. Rodriguez would run the ball in from four yards out to make it 49-7 with 8:22 left in the third quarter and substitutions and a running clock out an end to the scoring at that point.

THE PLAYS