After first thought, going for it on fourth down and 1 on the Canyon View 21 was an interesting call.

Desert Mountain’s kicking game is solid and won its semifinal with a game-winning kick to send the Wolves to their first state championship game.

Take the points, grab an early second-half lead and give the sidelines some good feels after the opening drive.

It looked a little ominous after the Canyon View stuffed the run and got the turnover on downs. It could have shifted the game in the Jaguars favor.

Conrad Hamilton knew better.

Or at least he knew his defense. Especially his defensive front.

It was clear in the Desert Mountain coach’s mind that even if the Wolves came up short on the fourth down attempt, all would be good.

Defenses coached by Hamilton almost always are, and that was certainly the case in the Wolves’ first state championship as they beat Canyon View 21-7 Saturday at Mountain America Stadium for the 5A state title.

“We were in a good spot,” Hamilton said. “We have confidence in our guys on the defensive side of the ball for sure.”

Brody Morrison, Davian Whitener, Cole Yerman and Connor Ring were disruptive, relentless and quickened the clock in Canyon View quarterback Brady Scott’s head before he left in the fourth quarter with a concussion.

The quartet along with Kaika Solomon and Christian McComber shrunk a Jaguars offense from explosive and confident to ineffective and scrambling for tempo and rhythm.

Then there is Ryan McDonough.

The senior was player of the game, as awarded by the AIA/Fiesta Bowl through a media vote, and given an WWF-style wrestling belt.

Might as well call him the Ultimate Warrior because he was pretty fierce including a sack early in the game, he nearly had a chance to scoop and score with but was tackled.

“I probably should have scored, but it doesn’t matter now because we got the win,” said McDonough, who led the team with seven tackles.

The only thing Canyon View had going on, especially in the second half, was third and longs, and passes knocked down. An offense that averaged 360 yards a game, including 236 through the air, and 36.1 points a game, was regulated to a ton of difficult down and distance situations.

The final numbers – 88 total yards for Canyon View when sack yardaged is included in the offensive stats.

Desert Mountain had nine sacks for minus 77 yards as McDonough finished with 3.5 and another tackle for loss. Whitener, who also scored the first touchdown after falling on an offensive fumble, had two sacks, while Connor Ring added 1.5 sacks.

“It’s a mentality that we have,” said McDonough, who finished with seven tackles. “For real, we play so hard for each. We’ve been through so much. I am so glad it happened on the biggest stage.

“We have so many coverages and blitzes, the quarterback didn’t know what we going on.”

Once the offense scored on the second drive of the half – Grant Garduno connected with Kai Tschen for a 49-yard score - it allowed the defense to unleash its superior athleticism and effort.

The unit, which entered the game with 106 tackles, for a loss, 20 sacks and 48 passes defensed, had the singular notion of meeting at the quarterback while knocking down passes thrown under duress - on the run or off the back foot – essentially the entire second half.

“When we have that energy, we know are going to win,” Whitener said. “We just feed off each other, the confidence grows and then there is no stopping us.”

The ninth-seeded Wolves (12-3) won five playoff games to win the gold ball, including three road games. The defense gave up 11.2 points a game over that stretch.

It might have never come together if it weren’t for back-to-back losses to Horizon and Notre Dame to close out the regular season. The defense gave up 72 points in those two games to back into the playoffs.

But according Hamilton, it is what the team needed to make this type of run. There was a meeting where the team all got together in the school library and hashed somethings out.

“We needed that butt kicking,” he said. “They beat us. They outplayed us. They were hungrier than we were. That was the glaring thing. We told them we got enough talent. We need to play harder. We need to be tougher mentally.

“We lose and the sky is falling. That’s life. Are you going to lose or be a loser?”

On this night – when it counted the most – it was clear the Wolves were not losers. They were going to win it in large part thanks to a defense that absolutely dominated.

So much so Hamilton knew he could gamble on fourth down because the defense was going to win the game for them.

“We knew they could score,” he said of Canyon View’s offense. “We didn’t know we were going to dominate them on defense like we did. It’s a good feeling.”