Wranglers (8-0) roll to another easy victory, 68-0

By Kevin Cloe, Publisher

Kyle Pollay looks for teammate blocking during interception return

OK ... let's try that again.

With three games remaining against struggling teams to finish the regular season, Wickenburg High School football coach Norris Vaughan hoped his Wranglers could work on their infrequently used passing game before the state playoffs begin in November.

Against winless Parker Friday night (Oct. 17), however, they couldn't work on that passing game.

The Wranglers, 8-0 for the season and ranked in the top three on most state 3A polls, scored on three of their first four offensive plays from scrimmage and scored three more times in the first half on pass interceptions en route to a 68-0 victory.

In fact, the first-team offense hardly saw any action Friday night.

"We wanted to work on our passing, but we couldn't," Vaughan muttered during halftime Friday night when his Wranglers held a 54-0 lead. "They (Broncs) kept running the same pass play (resulting in interception touchdowns), and I think we had that one covered."

He started playing his reserves at the end of the first half after the first-teamers only ran 12 offensive plays prior to halftime - five of which resulted in touchdowns. Of those 12, six were passing plays.

So now the Wranglers will travel to Sedona Red Rock (2-6) Friday night (Oct. 24) to face another struggling team with hopes of again working on their passing game.

Although the Scorpions' season record is slightly better than Parker's - and they defeated the Broncs by a 63-28 score two weeks ago - the Wranglers shouldn't have any problem extending their season record to 9-0 and 3A West Region winning streak to 20 games.

Red Rock is on a two-game winning streak after losing its first six games by an average of 42 points. Those victories came against Parker and Tuba City (47-12), a North Region team with a 1-7 season record.

The Scorpions have used three different quarterbacks during the season - starting with senior Sam Holeyfield (four games), testing freshman Jack Johnson (two games) and lately using junior Pedro Ortega (three games). They don't pass a lot, and their running game is anchored by No. 34 Travis Bernard, who averages slightly less than 100 yards per game.

Wickenburg's defense, meanwhile, continues to be outstanding - giving up only 28 points in eight games (while recording 339 points on offense). The defensive front has limited the opponents' running game to 80 yards per game, while the secondary has allowed only 51 yards per game and has picked off 20 interceptions (three each by linebackers Dustin Denmark and Matt Rockhill and safety Manuel Harmon, and two by linebacker Chad Peterson). Nine other players have each recorded one pick-off.

The Wrangler offense displayed its explosiveness early last Friday night with long touchdown runs by Enrique Bernal (66 yards) and Sheldon Murphy (52 yards). A 72-yard pass-run play from quarterback Dallas Mills to Murphy added to the onslaught by the end of the first quarter.

Two of the three pass interceptions for touchdowns occurred early in the second quarter - Peterson taking his pick 25 yards to the end zone, and Harmon going 27 yards after his pick-off.

A second Harmon interception set up the Wranglers' fifth touchdown - and it took only four plays before Mills hit Murphy on a 16-yard scoring strike.

Kyle Pollay's 25-yard touchdown pick padded the score to 47-0 before Jimmy Prigge snatched the fifth interception of the night and set up the Wranglers' final score of the first half - which only took three plays before Mills' 18-yard TD run.

The reserves saw plenty of action for the rest of the night, with the Wranglers handing off to 12 ball carriers - none of whom carried the ball more than four times throughout the game. Seven different Wranglers accounted for the 10 team touchdowns - with Murphy scoring three times and Harmon scoring twice.

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