4A championship game: Poston Butte, Casa Grande vie for long-awaited title
While familiar names will be facing off in Arizona high school footbal championship games at the 5A, 6A and Open levels, that will not be the case in 4A.
San Tan Poston Butte and Casa Grande will kick off championship weekend on Friday at 4 p.m. Neither school has ever made a state championship game under the Arizona Interscholastic Assocation format, though Casa Grande did win a title back in 1958, before the AIA oversaw state playoffs.
Both enter this year’s edition with squads deserving of a title.
Last weekend, No. 2 seed Casa Grande, which is undefeated, knocked off two-time defending 4A champs, No. 3 Gilbert Mesquite (9-4), in a commanding, 41-28, win. At the same time, No. 1 Poston Butte (11-2) beat No. 4 Glendale (11-2) with similar ease, 41-20.
Now, the two best teams in 4A all season get a long-awaited shot at each other.
Offensively, Poston Butte relies heavily on its ground game. This season, the Broncos have run the ball 82% of the time. That, though, doesn’t make them any easier to defend because of all the ways they can beat you with the run.
Senior quarterback Drew Dalmacio is a shifty athlete that coach Dain Thompson likes to get out in space. He’s especially effective in the red zone, with 19 touchdowns this year, including three against Glendale.
Dalmacio’s ability to beat teams with his legs also opens up running lanes for Poston Butte’s stable of running backs. Senior Octavious Joe (1,904 yards and 20 touchdowns) is the primary beneficiary, but junior Aidan Contreras (414 yards, two TDs) and senior Keith Gray (685 yards, eight TDs) also are excellent backs.
Beating Poston Butte — which has only lost to teams in the top-tier Open Division playoffs — starts with controlling that rushing attack, but it also requires a quarterback who can bypass their stalwart run defense. In the first round of the playoffs, No. 16 seed Phoenix Northwest Christian nearly perfected that recipe, coming two points short of a stunning upset. In the last two rounds, neither Prescott nor Glendale were able to do much through the air.
For Casa Grande, senior quarterback Angel Flores will be looking to change that.
When Flores arrived as a freshman — immediately jumping into a starting role — Casa Grande had finished over .500 twice in the previous decade. Over the last four seasons, he’s led the Cougars to a 33-12 record.
As he showed with four touchdowns against Mesquite, Flores is a dynamic runner but he’s even better through the air. This season, he’s completed 76.7% of his passes for 2,272 yards, spreading the ball around equally to a quintet of receivers. On the year, he has 25 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
On the other side of the ball, they have a talented — and experienced — unit of playmakers that’s forced over two turnovers per game. Senior Andon Diaz leads the way with 10 interceptions of his own.
Against Dalmacio — who has thrown six interceptions on his 109 pass attempts — that could help swing the game, as it has so many times in Casa Grande’s dominant undefeated season.
Prediction: Casa Grande 31, Poston Butte 28
Theo Mackie covers Arizona high school sports and Phoenix Rising FC. He can be reached by email at theo.mackie@gannett.com and on Twitter @theo_mackie.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona high school football 4A championship: Breakdown, prediction
