Florence survived the first half of its 3A quarterfinal matchup Saturday night with Round Valley thanks to two big plays on offense. The Gophers thrived in the second half on takeaways and controlling the line of scrimmage.

The bruising ground game was there. So was decent defense. But turnovers nearly foiled Blue Ridge and its bid to reach the 3A quarterfinals Saturday night at Desert Ridge High School.

With a shift in emphasis to the running game late this season due to an injury to quarterback Parker Rasmussen, Desert Ridge ran headlong into Chandler High in the first round of the 5A-I playoffs Friday night and ended up running all the way to the second round. The Jaguars spread-run offense cranked out 462 yards rushing and the defense made a goal-line stand in the final 40 seconds to preserve a 38-35 upset win over the host Wolves.

An all-White Mountain 3A semifinal? It has happened before. Could happen again. That scenario is as much up to Winslow, Coolidge, Florence and Fountain HIlls as it is to Show Low, Snowflake, Round Valley and Blue Ridge as 3A quarterfinal matchups come to the East Valley on Saturday afternoon and evening.

The 5A-II state football playoffs are similar to 5A-I in that there is a prohibitive favorite in defending champion and top-seed Chaparral. Beyond that the 5A-II opening-round games do not look anything like their 5A-I counterparts. The matchups ffigure to run like clockwork according to the seeds with perhaps the usual exceptions in a 9-8 or 10-7 matchup. And rather than one rematch of a regular-season meeting, there are four of eight in the initial battles for 2010 5A-II supremacy.

The 5A-I state football playoffs offers some suspense in the early going. Perhaps more so than in recent years so fans should rejoice in that aspect. Hamilton (5A-I) is the prohibitive favorite to be sure with an unbeaten record and defending state-champion status. And it is a bit of an odd year when Mesa Mountain View and Brophy are double-digit rather than single-digit seeds and qualify with .500 records.

Winning a fourth straight 5A-I volleyball title looked as though it would be a walk in the park for Xavier after t

It is hard to imagine when teams play 40 matches in the same conference that they did not meet at least once during the season. That was the case with perennial 5A-I contender Desert Vista and on-coming Desert Ridge Thursday night in the state girls volleyball quarterfinals. Desert Vista was not a region champ, but paid its dues in the Fiesta Region with the likes of state tournament qualifiers Xavier, Hamilton and Red Mountain. That experience and an adjustment midway through the match helped in rallying from two games down as the No. 4 seeded Thunder recorded a 24-26, 19-25, 25-12, 25-18, 15-12 win over the No. 12 Jaguars.

Skyline High football has endured a miserable year. Its 0-10 record tells that story. With one game left in the 2010 season, the Coyotes hope to salve the wound of a winless season and its past 17 overall. That final chance comes Friday night at home against Casa Grande, who like Skyline, was winless until the Cougars took home a 21-19 win over Alhambra last week.

It has arrived. The final weekend of regular-season action in 5A and 4A football with some region titles and many playoffs spots yet to be determined.

State swimming and diving championships. All at one site. All the same day. And forgive the pun, but the competition is not watered down. With state meets now consolidated into two for boys and girls (Division I and Division II) down from five in recent years, the race for individual titles will be as keen as it\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s been in a long, long time.

Basha did what others haven\\\'t in the past fiive years. The Bears handed Corona del Sol a 5A-I first-round state girls volleyball tournament defeat, coming back from a 2-1 deficit to beat the Aztecs, 25-27, 25-21, 12-25, 25-14, 15-6 at Basha High.