In the biggest game of the year in the 1A Conference, Williams didn’t fold and accept another blowout loss to the same opponent this season.

It responded immediately after Mogollon went up 18-0 in the second quarter. A great catch by tight end Preston Ford sparked a 69-yard scoring drive, and it was game on after that.

But in the end, a couple of plays determined the outcome of Saturday night’s big play-packed battle at Coronado High. The beneficiary of the game-clinching moments was Mogollon, which lifted the 1A championship trophy after holding on for a 38-30 win.

If it had executed more two-point conversions (1 for 5 in those attempts), Mogollon probably doesn’t sweat out the final minutes. Luckily, two of the team’s stars helped save the day.

A dropped pass by an open receiver with less than five minutes remaining forced Mogollon to punt to Williams, which was trailing 32-24. Blake Smith’s 26-yard run, followed by quarterback Zain Grantham’s 22-yard touchdown run, then quickly set Williams up with a two-point play to tie the game.

But Mogollon’s ironman, senior Jayk Kelton, stepped in to break up the pass in the end zone. On the first play from scrimmage in Mogollon’s next drive, the team’s second leading rusher, junior Malaki Porter, spun away from trouble near the line of scrimmage.

That set him free for a 40-yard gain. Malaki’s brother, Cael (2 touchdowns), then punched it in a couple of plays later from a yard out to end the drive.

As it did all night, Mogollon went for two but failed, leaving Williams, the 1A defending champ, 1:37 on the clock while clinging to a 38-30 lead. But a couple of penalties backed Williams up, leading to a turn over on downs.

After running out the clock, Mogollon's players and first-year head coach Rick Samon started celebrating. Samon, a retired Arizona Department of Public Safety officer, began coaching at Mogollon in 1999.

“I just got to put it back on the kids,” Samon said. “Unbelievable. I kept telling them all year don’t do it for me. Do it for you.”

Samon also wanted his team to win a ring for assistant coach Scott Ross, who’s coached for 39 years and didn't win a championship until Saturday.

This season, Samon got to coach his grandsons, Jayk, Mogollon’s leading rusher and tackler in 2020, and Blayk, a sophomore, and his program to its first title since 2014.

It finished this season with an 8-0 record. One of those victories was a 48-8 regular season win over Williams, a team that lost almost every starter off of last year’s team but improved vastly as this season wore on.

The 6-2 team just couldn’t completely figure out Mogollon this year.

“We had to make some corrections,” said Grantham about giving Mogollon a better game the second time around. “They were stopping our run and had to see what we could do. We had to play physical. Our talent and effort wasn’t there the first time we played them. We are still proud of the runner-up.”

(Williams has reached the 1A championship game four times in the past five seasons.)

Grantham threw two touchdowns and ran for one.

Mogollon opened the second half with a touchdown to go up 26-8.

But Williams fought back, scoring 16 unanswered points.

This was the first time this season that Mogollon was tested, but it didn’t back down, as it began the fourth quarter with another score.

On that drive, junior center Edy Corrales alertly recovered a fumble by one of his running backs down field. Five different players scored touchdowns for Mogollon, including sophomore Payton Reidhead, who ran one in from 81 yards in the first half on a counter play.

“Winning this means that a good team came together and finished,” Jayk said. “It’s sweet to come out on top in the end. It’s a family thing.”

First and second half highlights of Saturday's game: