Mike McQuade is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student. 

The Queen Creek Bulldogs advanced to the advanced to the semifinals of the 6A football state playoffs with a 27-24 win over the Highland Hawks on Friday night.

The Bulldogs came into the game as fourth seed, while the Hawks were the fifth seed. 

Queen Creek (7-3,3-2) will face off against the No. 1-seed Red Mountain (9-1,5-0) next Friday at Westwood High School.  

The game came down to the wire for the Hawks. They began their final drive on their own 20-yard line.

On the first three plays of the final drive, sophomore quarterback Gage Dayley was able to find senior receiver True Tanner on an outside slant and right out of bounds.

“Earlier in the year, we worked two minute drill at least once a week,” Hawks coach Brock Farrel said. "This week we did it every day, and that's how we just started practice.”  

That practice paid off. 

With less than 30 seconds left the Bulldogs found themselves in trouble with the Hawks on the 3-yard line, but an unsportsmanlike penalty and pushed the Hawks back to the 17-yard line. 

Then on second down,  the Hawks still had a chance but they were picked off in the end zone by the Bulldogs to close out the game. 

“We should have had it and we had a little mental error at the end there that pushed us back, but oh well,” Farrel said.

Dayley was able to cut down the Bulldogs' lead in the second half after only scoring one touchdown in the first half. Dayley passed for 189 yards, completing 17 of 25 passes just in the second half.  

But Highland struggled to stop Queen Creek's run game, especially senior running back Dayson Coleman, who had four rushing touchdowns. 

“We want to be as balanced as we can. It gives us our best chance,” Queen Creek coach Joe Germaine said. “ We like to throw the ball, but being as balanced as we can, like I said, is a real key for us.”

In the second half, sophomore quarterback Devin Brown only threw the ball six times, making half of his throws to gain 22 yards. The backfield was the offensive key. Junior back Trey Reynolds had a 45-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter with less than 5 minutes to go.   

“That was a great test for us," Germaine said. "I was just proud of the grit and heart our players showed tonight."