No. 15 St. Mary's had the will, but not the way Friday night to pull off an upset of No. 2 Higley in the first round of the 4A football playoffs. Draycen Hall saw to that. 

Hall took the air out of an inspired St. Mary's effort early on, helping Higley to a 24-point second quarter and ulttimately a 44-0 triumph at Higley High School.

Higley (10-1) moves on to the quarterfinals next Thursday for another rematch from the regular season. This one will be with Cactus, a 62-16 winner over Dysart. Higley defeated Cactus in mid-October, 57-34.  St. Mary's finished up the first season under coach Tommy Brittain at 4-7.

Hall, a 5-foot-8, 170-pound junior was magnificent -- as he has been all season. He entered the game with 1,844 yards rushing and another 503 receiving. On this night he piled up better than 300 all-purpose yards -- 187 rushing, 65 yards receiving and close to 100 on punt returns. He scored four touchdowns. They came on runs of 29 and 44 yards, a catch and run of 25 yards and a 43-yard punt return. He had a second  punt-return TD called back to begin the final period. 

Most of Hall's production came in the second and third quarters. He sat the fourth and had a tough time getting going in the first period due to fired up play from St. Mary's defense.

That included a goalline stand at the St. Mary's 1 on Higley's first possession. It was Hall that was stopped on fourth-and-1 from the 1.

Add a little adversity for Higley in the opening periodwith a key injury. Late in the first period, standout quarterback Mason Crossland absorbed a high hit that knocked him out of the game. Higley coach Eddy Zubey said after the game Crossland likely will be a gametime decision in the next round, which is a day earlier next week than usual.

Junior Jacob Rowland, Crossland's backup, had been playing receiver since the third week of the season due to injury elsewhere. Rowland responded by completing 4-of-8 passes for 58 yards and a touchdown in the first half. His totals for the game were 10-of-17 for 162 yards, two TDs and one interception.

"We didn't change what we wanted to do because Mason went down," Zubey, who recorded his first playoff win in his Higley tenure, said. "Draycen came out and did what he does. A lot of great runs. Jacob hadn't had a quarterback rep since the third week. He's been our freshman and JV quarterback the last two years. Next year he'll be the guy. He played very well given the situation. Our defense played well, too. Getting a shutout in the playoffs is awesome.,"

St. Mary's was never able to generate offense. Playing for the second week in a row without top receiver Jorden Blake, the Knights weren't able to move the chains very often. They were limited to 74 yards of offense in the first half, just seven yards passing.

But donning its traditonal gold pants for the playoffs, the defense was outstanding the first half. They held Higley scoreless in the first period. No team had done that to Higley this season. And it was a bad break that set up Higley for its first score., not the defense's fault.

St. Mary's was setting up to field a punt when the ball hit a St. Mary's player on the fly who didn't have his head turned. Higley recovered at the St. Mary's 31.

Four plays later  -- early in the second period -- Rowland tossed a 9-yard TD pass to Chris Crescione for a 7-0 lead. A 35-yard reception by Hall from Rowland on the next possession resulted in a 25-yad field goal by Carter Wrobel to make it 10-0.

Hall got one carry on the next drive, the last one of a 6-play, 48-yard march. It was his 29-yard TD run. Backfield mate James Mageo added the final TD of the first half on a 3-yard run that made it 24-0.

Hall's final three TDs came in a six-minute span of the third period. Several of his runs -- some he scored on and some that were just big gains, turned losses into huge plays. That's just what he does.