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The No. 2-ranked Superior football team retained the Copper Helmet for the second consecutive year, defeating visiting Ray 56 – 0 in the regular-season finale for both teams last Friday night. The battle for the Copper Helmet is one of the state’s oldest rivalries.
For the Panthers, Friday’s game was also Senior Night, where a special group of players were honored before the game.
“These seniors, most of them have been starters for four years,” Superior head coach Ryan Palmer said after the game. “It was a special night (and) that they played their last regular-season game and kept the Copper Helmet in Superior made it even better.”
Battle for the copper helmet one of the oldest rivalries in AZ let’s keep it
Where it belongs boy pic.twitter.com/bWY6njZAkX— Manuel Ortega (@omanuel9) October 14, 2016
Senior Edgar Galindo, who returned after missing the past couple of games with an injury, scored four touchdowns – two rushing, two receiving – in the shutout win. He also ran for a game-high 137 yards.
Likely Player of the Year Nicolaus Cruz ran for a touchdown and threw three touchdown passes, including one to junior Marcos Bueno.
Senior QB Nicolaus Cruz leads the Panthers on the field vs. Ray in Copper Helmet game.
On defense, the Panthers forced two turnovers – an interception by Austin Navarrette and a fumble recovery by Jalon Murray. Sophomore Steven Ybarra finished with a game-high 14 tackles while Galindo added 10.
For Ray, the loss ended a season in which it finished with three wins, but two of them by forfeit.
“The boys came out firing on all cylinders at the start,” Ray head coach Frank Lechuga said about Friday’s game. “After the first quarter, the things that have plagued us all season starting popping up again, but throughout the entire game our kids never gave up.”
The Bearcats lose only four seniors off the roster for next season, which figures to be more successful considering a year of experience under the belts of the younger players.
Ray freshman RB Jando Felix (33) looks for running room in Friday’s game.
“We are loaded with underclassmen,” Lechuga said. “We’ll have a really good squad coming back next year. It’s just a matter of the boys dedicating themselves 100 percent to the program and the rest will take care of itself.”
The Panthers finished the regular season undefeated and will start their quest for a state championship following a welcomed bye this week.
“There’s a reason why you try to earn one of the top-four spots in the playoffs,” Palmer said. “We only have 17 kids on the team, so the fewer games we have to play the better it’s going to be for us as far as staying healthy and fresh.”
Superior will await the winner between No. 10 Mogollon and No. 7 Joseph City.
“The extra week off also gives us a little extra time to prepare for our next opponent, and hopefully allows us make a deep run in these playoffs,” Palmer added.
Coaches like to see their teams playing their best as the playoffs begin. Does Palmer like where his team is at this point of the season?
“We need to clean some things up,” he responded. “Two big things that have hurt us the last two weeks have been poor blocking and tackling.”
“I’m not ever going to be satisfied,” he added. “We have to do some of the little things a little bit better.”
It might sound like Palmer is being a little hard on a team that finished 8 – 0 and dominated every game this season, but he has his reasons.
“We’re trying to be the best team in the state every time we take the field,” he added. “We’ve proven that we’ve been the best team on the field so far, but we want to reach that elite status.”
In this case, “elite status” is a.k.a., State Champions.
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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