Queen Creek huddles after outlasting Campo Verde for its eighth win a row on Friday (AzPreps365 photo)

 

Queen Creek football coach Travis Schureman said it wasn't his team's best game, but in the end as the regular seasn winds down and the war of physical attrition continues a win is a win.

Two second-half fumble recoveries, a blocked extra point and a red-zone stand in the final seconds helped No. 2 Queen Creek fend off No. 12 Camp Verde, 21-16, in a key 5A game at Campo Verde. 

"Coach (Max) Ragsdale does a great job, that's a great team over there," Schureman said of Campo moments after his squad cemented the win defending a fourth-down pass. "It wasn't our best, but we battled. We're beat up so we looking forward to not having a game next week."

Queen Creek protected a 21-16 lead the entire fourth period and had to do so in the waning minutes.  With four-plus minutes to play, Queen Creek linebacker Jon Matuzak stripped the ball from Campo on  a run and the chance to salt away the final minutes was at hand.

But Camp Verde (6-2, 1-2) region) got a final possession with 3:39 left thanks to a diving interception by Ryan Clegg at the Campo 29. Camp Verde methodically chewed up almost 50 rushing yards between reserve backs Jett Brown and Tucker Williams to earn a first down at the Queen Creek 19.

Pass attempts on third and fourth down failed from the Queen Creek 17 with the Bulldogs Armando Orona deflecting the final attempt inside the 10. 

"We did a better job in the second half," Ragsdale said. "We made some mental mistakes up front the first half. It's a tough one to lose. Two in a row (two weeks ago a last-second loss to Williams Field). I wish our first half would have been more like our second half offensively."

Queen Creek (8-0 and 2-0 in the San Tan Valley Region), survived offensively via three touchdown passes from Devin Larsen and the hard running of workhorse back Dylan Borja. Larsen completed 12 of 24 passes for 136 yards with two interceptions. Borja rushed 29 times for 183 yards -- 137 in the second half.

The third quarter was a scorefest with all the points in the second half tallied in that quarter after the teams played to a 7-7 tie at halftime. Christian Fuhrman's fumlbe recovery on Campo's first possession of the second half led to the go-ahead score for Queen Creek. A 39-yard run by Borja and Larsen's second TD hookup with Ayala from 11 yards out made it 14-7 with 9:37 left in the third quarter.

A rejuvenated Campo rushing attack led by Brown and Williams subbing for injured Matt Leazier began moving the chains. Campo quarterback EJ Galvez unleashed one big pass play -- a perfect 45-yard TD strike to wide eout Kyle LeClaire. The tying extra point attempt was blocked by Fuhrman keeping Queen Creek in front ,14-13.

Borja piled up 52 yards rushing on Queen Creek's next possession, but Larsen capped it with a 37-yard post-pattern score to top receiver Garrett Duke. to make it 21-13 mid third period.

Campo added a field goal to answer with Brown and Williams netting huge chunks of yardage up the middle to set up a 32-yard field goal -- the game's final points with 58 seconds left in the third quarter.

Campo scored its first-half TD via special teams. It scored first on a 50-yard blocked punt return by Brandon Hall. The blocked punt was partially deflected by Hayden Webber and traveled forward about 15 yards where Hall caught it in the air and sped down the right sideline for a 7-0 lead with 5:20 left before the half.

Queen Creek responded with a 78-yard march culminating in Larsen's first TD pass (4 yards to tight end Jake Ayala) with 43 seconds to intermission.