Week One of the 2025 high school football season is in the books and the week ended with a couple of huge victories with Tuba City taking care of Gallup, New Mexico 38-8 up north and Pusch Ridge handling San Tan Foothills 53-10 in the south. Everything breaks open in Week Two with an almost full slate of games scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, with the addition of teams from 4A, 5A and 6A.

The Pusch Ridge Lions went 13-1 last year and the program earned its second state championship after outscoring opponents 131-26 in the state playoffs, including a 26-7 victory over ALA-West Foothills in the championship game. The Lions lost their quarterback, top three rushers, four of their top six receivers and seven of their top nine defenders to graduation so there was an obvious question as to whether head coach Kent Middleton had enough talent left to reload or enough time to rebuild. If Saturday night was an indicator, it looks like the 3A race will be a battle once again.

Things looked great for San Tan Foothills early after the Sabercats forced a fumble and Jordan Farmer connected on a short TD pass to put the team up 7-0 with 8:36 left in the first The Lions rebounded to take a 21-10 lead at the half.

The Sabercats made the state playoffs in 2022 but the program missed the playoffs in 2023 and again in 2024. Michael Coe replaced Mike Carlin this past summer (Carlin is now the head coach of Florence) and San Tan Foothills showed some promise with almost 100 yards rushing at Pusch Ridge to go along with some timely plays to erase long third down and fourth down situations but the Lions had too many weapons.

Jr. QB Race Pinneo finished with an unofficial 172 yards passing on eight attempts with two touchdowns, Jr. QB MJ Buckner added 53 yards passing with another TD, Sr. Dominic Painter had 166 yards receiving with two scores and the Shoaff brothers, Cameron and Dylan came up big on both sides of the ball.

Levi Adcock put the Lions up 48-10 on an interception return to start the fourth quarter and a safety was followed by a 47-yard field goal from Kamden Cummins to put the game away 53-10 on a running clock.

Pusch Ridge (1-0) will travel to ALA-Ironwood (0-1) on Friday and San Tan Foothills (0-1) will visit Dysart (0-1).  

 

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