Willcox beat Benson 23-3 on the road last Friday to move to 9-0 on the year. The victory also moved the Cowboys into the top spot in the AIA/MaxPreps Rankings followed by Scottsdale Christian (8-0) and San Tan Charter (7-0). 

The Cowboys have the top seed at the moment, but by a slim margin of 66.0351 to 65.7706, but it’s a precarious spot with Willcox finishing with a home game against No. 14 Tanque Verde (6-3) on Friday while Scottsdale Christian is hosting No. 5 Arizona Lutheran (7-2) and San Tan Charter is finishing with No. 8 St. Johns (7-2).

Scottsdale Christian beat St. Johns in the 2A championship game last year 27-22 after beating Willcox 28-25 in the semifinal round. St. Johns beat Tanque Verde 29-16 in the other semifinal game.

Willcox won a state championship in 1982 and the Cowboys last made the championship final in 2009 while Scottsdale Christian has five state titles, including the last three in a row. San Tan Charter has yet to make a championship final.

At any rate, all three teams should earn a first-round bye which mean an extra week to prepare for the second round on Nov. 6.

Willcox used a purposeful, clock eating offense at Benson starting with an opening drive that resulted in a 7-0 lead with only 4:28 left on the clock. Kaleb Cooke capped off the time-consuming drive with a two-yard run.

Steele Romney came up with an interception for Willcox with 9:57 let in the first half and Cooke put the Cowboys up 10-0 on a 32-yard field goal. Wayne Stark made a field goal for Benson to cut the lead down to 10-3 with 4:44 left in the third quarter but Robert Hill Jr. hit Da'Marion Jackson from 25-yards out to put the Cowboys up 16-3 with 1:42 left in the quarter.

Anthony Morales shut the door on Benson with an interception with 3:45 left in the game and that resulted in a 7-yard touchdown run from Asher Ward with 1:43 left for the 23-3 final.

Asher finished with 119 yards rushing for 940 on the year and Cooke had 118 yards for 933 on the year. Cooke had 1,577 yards last year, former Cowboy Ismael Cuevas had 1,142 and Asher had 808. In all, the Cowboys rushed for 3.,667 yards as a team last year compared to only 2,463 this year.