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Armon McGuire hauls in a pass reception during last Friday’s game.
Kelli Luberda | Ledger
Bulldogs take the field before last Friday’s playoff game versus Saguaro.
Kelli Luberda | Ledger
Southeast Valley Ledger
For the fifth time in six seasons the Queen Creek football team had its season ended by a Saguaro team that has now won nine-straight games against the Bulldogs.
Last Friday’s loss was the most lopsided of any after the Sabercats took advantage of seven Bulldogs’ turnovers, leading to a 54 – 0 shellacking in the Division II quarterfinals.
“We could never finish drives (on Friday),” Queen Creek head coach Travis Schureman told theLedgerafter the game. “We just kept shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Not much went right for the Bulldogs, beginning with the first play of the game, when quarterback Kaleb Honea connected with junior receiver Armon McGuire on a 75-yard pass completion that was called back on a very questionable call.
McGuire was flagged for going out-of-bounds before being the first player to touch the ball in bounds. It appeared that McGuire was forced out by the Saguaro defender on the play. The resulting penalty nullified the big play and a first-and-goal for the Bulldogs.
“(The game official) said Armon ran out-of-bounds,” Schureman said. “We thought he was pushed out, but we have to be a better team to overcome those situations and still battle back.”
It only got worse from there.
Later, during the same possession, Queen Creek threw an interception and followed with another interception and a fumble the next two times it had the ball.
Saguaro capitalized, scoring 21 points off the three turnovers during the first 13-plus minutes of the game.
“Obviously, you can’t turn the ball over one time against a team like that, let alone as many times as we did,” Schureman said. “They’re a good defense, but I’m not sure what happened (on our side).”
Five of the seven takeaways came during the first half that ended with Saguaro leading, 28 – 0.
The domination continued in the second half with the Sabercats outscoring the Bulldogs 26 – 0, which included a pick-six by Byron Murphy, one of the state’s top college recruits.
Of all the potential outcomes of Friday’s game, a 54-point shutout was perhaps the most unlikely and definitely the most shocking.
Although difficult now, the Bulldogs’ seniors will eventually look back on their four-year career with great pride and realize they left Queen Creek as one of the most successful classes in the football program’s history.
During its four years, the senior class lost only six games to three teams – Saguaro, Williams Field, and Hamilton – and was undefeated in its first two seasons at the school.
“This senior class has set the bar high at Queen Creek,” Schureman said. “They’ve always done everything right – everything we’ve asked them to do – and they’ve worked hard. They are the example of the type of student-athletes we like to have at Queen Creek.”
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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