A pair of pink gloves went up and came down with presents for Canyon View.

Liz Wetherington, in her final home game, caught the game-winning pass Wednesday to send Canyon View to Saturday’s 5A state flag title game after a 16-13 overtime victory over Campo Verde. As quarterback Katelyn Jewell walked off the field, she told her coach, Michael Beal, that all she saw were Wetherington’s pink gloves on the final play of the semifinal game.

“I was just running my route, and all of a sudden the ball just came and I was like, ‘That is my mine,’” Wetherington said. “I wanted to win this game so bad. I was willing to give up anything, anything to win this game. I just want to thank all of my coaches and teammates for everything.”

The pass wasn’t intended for Wetherington.

Makenzie Pope, the 5A’s leader in touchdowns, was running in the back of the end zone and was open as well. But Wetherington’s double move on her route was so good that it freed her up also.

In the end, for Canyon View, what mattered most is that it’ll get a second chance to claim something it lost last year.

“We knew that we had left something on the table,” said Beal about last year’s 5A championship loss to Campo Verde. “We came back with this squad after losing a lot of important seniors, and we came in with the mentality, form the very first day, that we were not going to rebuild. We were going to reload.”

Beal has a rare blood disease and suffered a stroke on campus two years ago.

He said when flag was introduced in 2023 on his campus it was the best medicine he could have asked for.

In the first two years of flag’s existence in Arizona, the CV twins have played in some heart thumping battles, four of the of the best so far in the sport regardless of classification.

They played just 13 days ago, with Canyon View clinching a higher seed, No. 2, in the playoffs with a 28-17 victory. That allowed it to eventually host Wednesday's semifinal game in Waddell.

In last year’s final, Campo Verde blocked an extra point late in the game to clinch a 14-13 triumph.

In Wednesday’s semifinal, with 24.2 left in regulation, Campo Verde’s special teams blocking unit once again came through.

The green gloved hands of Ella Mutters blocked a 20-yard field goal attempt that sent the game to overtime tied 10-10.

“It’s beautiful,” said Beal about his program’s nail-biting confrontations with Campo Verde. “Isn’t it fun? I love what (Campo Verde coach) Brian Coger does with his girls. Iron sharpens iron.”

In Wednesday’s overtime, Canyon View won the toss and deferred.

Campo Verde failed to score a touchdown, but Veronika Hutchings converted a 27-yard field goal to put her team up 13-10 and set up Wetherington’s heroics.

After a Canyon View timeout while facing a 3rd and goal from the 8, Jewell lofted a pass to fellow senior Wetherington to end the game.

“I was just in so much shock,” Wetherington said. “I didn’t even know what to say or do. ‘What? Am I dreaming.’ I thought I was dreaming.”

Throwing 62 touchdowns in a season also seems like a dream, but that’s what Jewell has accumulated so far in 2024.

Campo Verde's Emmy Kasdorf-Sweitzer congratulated Canyon View's Katelyn Jewell (left) and Liz Wetherington (right) after Wednesday's thriller. (Photo Jose Garcia/AZPreps365)

Center Maycie Bassett caught a 1-yard touchdown pass on 4th and goal to put Canyon View up 10-0 just before halftime.

But Campo Verde’s Rhiana Grunani and Myla Robertson intercepted Jewell in the second half to help set up a 34-yard field goal and Mutters touchdown catch from Isabella Pap on fourth down. Linebacker Payton Davis was in Canyon View’s backfield most of the night and recorded four sacks.

The game marked the end of the brief but stellar career of Madison Coger, who was double covered at times, a sign of respect for a player who earned her stripes as a two-way threat the past two seasons. Her dad, Brian, is Campo Verde’s coach.

The Cogers led their team to a 22-9 mark the last two years and helped their program win the first official flag high school title game ever played in the state.

Canyon View (13-1) will see if it can win the second 5A title game. It’ll face the top seed, undefeated Mountain Pointe, for the crown Saturday at Chandler High.