Don Ketchum
Former Staff Writer, AZPreps365.com

Score doesn't indicate so, but Brophy dominates Desert Mtn.

August 30, 2013 by Don Ketchum, AZPreps365


For 47 minutes and 51 seconds, Phoenix Brophy Prep’s football team kept Scottsdale Desert Mountain off the scoreboard.

But the Broncos so dominated play that it might as well have been the full 48 minutes.

Brophy emerged with a 13-6 victory at Phoenix College in a game that wasn’t that close.

Special teams and defense were the order of the muggy evening.

No lightning in the sky, and very little of it on the field for Desert Mountain’s high-profile passing duo of quarterback Kyle Allen and receiver Mark Andrews.

Allen found Andrews eight times for 104 yards, but most of those were empty yards. Allen completed 25 of 42 passes for 266 yards with an interception. He scored the Wolves’ touchdown on a 1-yard run with nine seconds left in the game.

The man who came up with the interception was safety Brian Woodward, who returned the ball 50 yards near midfield with about 3 ½ minutes to play in the game. About a minute earlier, the senior leveled Andrews with a big hit on a pass over the middle that fell incomplete. Andrews was slow to get up and was fortunate to walk off the field on his own.

Woodward also is the Broncos’ quarterback this season after the graduation of Tyler Bruggman and handled things about as well as could be expected in his debut on that side of the ball.

The Brophy offense will be different with Woodward taking the snaps. He likely will run the ball more and not throw as deep as his predecessor. He rushed for 45 yards in this one and completed 9 of 17 passes for 91 yards.

If getting his bell rung wasn’t enough for Andrews, his worst moment of the night came with 10:15 left in the game when his punt was blocked by the Broncos’ Dylan Taylor and recovered in the end zone for a touchdown by Walker Adams.

That gave Brophy more breathing room, supplementing field goals of 27 and 48 yards by Phillip Mourikes.

“Our defense was incredible. Gary Galante (defensive coordinator) did a great job,’’ said Brophy coach Scooter Molander.

“You take a win any way you can get it. They (Desert Mountain) have good athletes, but we have good athletes, too. Our guys believe in themselves.’’

Desert Mountain coach Tony Tabor was disappointed by the outcome.

“Our defense gave us a chance, but you can’t get it in the red zone three or four times and only come up with one score.

“We were sloppy and I take responsibility for that. Maybe we have been reading too much about ourselves (preseason hype).’’