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The Hayden Lobos won their 24th consecutive game Saturday, defeating Bagdad 56-34 at Scottsdale Coronado High School for its second straight 1A football championship.
The No. 1-seeded Lobos (12-0), from Winkleman about 100 miles southeast of the Phoenix area, beat the second-seeded Sultans for the second time this season. They won 30-20 at Bagdad on Sept. 6.
Bagdad (10-2) lost its only two games to Hayden.
Hayden had gone 51 years without winning a state championship before last season. Now it appears the Lobos have an 8-man football dynasty in the making, after back-to-back unbeaten seasons.
Before the last two seasons, Hayden’s last state title came in 1972.
The win came following a great spring at Hayden, where the Lobos won the 1A baseball state title. Most of the returning baseball players were on the football team, including two-way star Kino Lorona, who returned an interception for a touchdown and caught a TD pass Saturday.
“These guys worked extremely hard over the summer and over the season,” coach John Estrada said. “They really put in the work and it paid off. Not only that, but our assistant coaches are a prime group and jell pretty well, and got the job done for two years in a row.”
Hayden’s secondary was depleted for the championship game. One defensive back had suffered a leg injury and another suffered a broken collarbone in the game. But the Lobos pulled together against a dynamic Bagdad offense.
“When you play a game like Hayden, you’ve got to play your best game for four quarters,” Bagdad coach Dalton Mills said. “We had a couple of opportunities early that we missed on. They won the turnover battle, which was huge.”
Estrada praised the job quarterback Paul Gaither did running the veer offense. He had two TD passes in the game with the run game unleashed. Tyler Garner and Lorona both rushed for more than…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/hayden-caps-2nd-straight-perfect-014115709.html
Author : AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
Publish date : 2024-11-18 01:41:15
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