No. 2 Salpointe (10-2) beat No. 7 Williams Field 35-25 Friday night at home to advance to the 6A semifinal round where the Lancers will host No. 3 Scottsdale Saguaro. The Sabercats beat No. 6 Perry 42-32 in the other quarterfinal game to set up a rematch with Salpointe. The Lancers beat Saguaro 21-14 in the last week of October which turned out to be one of the five losses for the Sabercats (7-5) this year.

Williams Field ended the season with a 6-6 record but the team started out 4-0 before losing five of their next six games, including the last four regular season games. A 35-6 victory over No. 10 Boulder Creek in the first round of the playoffs, combined with a competitive run at Salpointe Friday night, made this an exceptional outcome for the Black Hawks.

Williams Field senior running back Dylan Lee ended his career with well over 3,500 yards rushing, and he gave the Lancers some defensive problems throughout the game, but the Iowa State commit wasn’t enough to overcome the weapons on the Salpointe sidelines.

The Lancers scored first on a 5-yard pass from Mathew Avelar to Morgan Quiri with 3:57 left in the first to go up 7-0 and then Avelar hit Cade Paglinawan from 56 yards on a fourth down play to go up 14-0 with 8:11 left in the half. Avelar finished the night with over 150 yards passing. Senior QB Taylor Nagore led the Lancers to an 8-1 record before the program went with freshman QB Avelar in the playoffs and both QBs saw action in a 14-12 loss to Brophy Prep to end the regular season.

The Black Hawks have also used primarily two QBs this year with juniors Kody Guy and Xavier Buckles taking turns and that was on display Friday night with each standout giving way to the other in the game multiple times. Guy was the QB of record when the Black Hawks moved down the field to cut the Salpointe lead down to 14-7 with Lee diving from 2-yards out with 1:10 left in the half.

The Lancers drove down into scoring position before the half on a 36-yard dump off to Richard Rivera but Adrian Dahlene came up with an interception in the end zone to keep the Black Hawks close at the half.

Salpointe came out and scored again on a short run from Jaxson Banhie to put the Lancers up 21-7 with 8:02 left in the third but Xavier Buckles hit Braeden Kirsner on a 56-yard score to cut the lead down to 21-13 with a missed kick with 11:50 left in the game. Richard Archuleta and Kayden Steptoe came up with interceptions for the Lancers and the second one led to a 10-yard scoring run from Jaylin Wills-Dennard to make it 28-13 with 7:24 left.

With time running out, the Black Hawks lost the ball on downs deep in their own end of the field and Richard Rivera put Salpointe up 35-13 with 4:40 left on a 14-yard run. Lee ripped off a 70-yard run to cut the lead down to 35-19 with a missed kick with 3:21 left in the game and then Guy hit Joshua Sandru as time expired for the 35-25 final.

THE SCORES